The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message

“If we don’t take down the King, then things are going to just get worse from here. You know that, Charlie,” said Stan. “The King’s been abusing the people living here for too long, and he’s not letting up. And now, we have people, a lot of powerful people, ready to risk their lives to take him down, and we’re closer than ever to getting the supplies to do it. Are you saying you just want to give up?”

Charlie sighed before answering. “No, you’re right, and I know you’re right. It’s just …” He paused as a tear rolled down his cheek and he wiped it away. “It’s not any easier.”

Kat leaned over to Charlie and gave him a hug. Over her shoulder, Charlie glanced at Stan, and their eyes locked. Stan knew from the look in Charlie’s eyes that, as much as neither of them liked it, Charlie knew that they must carry on.

Stan became vaguely aware of another presence joining them. He looked up and saw Oob looking down at them, the Iron Golem standing just behind him.

“You are doing the right thing, Charlie,” said Oob, his face more serious than Stan had ever seen him. “And I thank you for making life better for us.”

Stan smiled. This was the reason they were doing this, he thought. The lower-level players, the NPC villagers. Wasn’t this the reason that they were ready to fight? These people weren’t able to defend themselves, and while the King capitalized on this weakness by extorting them, there would always be those willing to defend them. The Apothecary, the Nether Boys, DZ, even the Iron Golem, Stan realized, were ready to defend themselves and others if the need arose, but that didn’t mean that they were vicious monsters. Hadn’t Stan seen the Iron Golem, just this morning, playing tag with the villager children?

As if in response to his thoughts, Stan heard a metallic creaking and looked up. The Iron Golem had stepped forwards and walked right to Charlie. Charlie looked into the Golem’s red eyes, and the Golem extended its metal hand. Clasped in it was a red flower, a rose: the Golem’s gift to the heavy-hearted Charlie.

Charlie smiled and took the rose. “Thank you,” he said to the Golem, and the iron obelisk nodded its head with a metallic creak in response. Charlie stood up and looked at his friends. “Come on, guys. We’ve got some Endermen to kill.”

Glad to see that his friend was out of his stupour, Stan followed Charlie and Kat back to Oob’s house, where they found DZ already waiting and ready for hunting.

“Hey guys! You ready to kick some teleporting butt?” he asked, eliciting the first smirk anyone had seen on Charlie since the siege. DZ took notice. “Hey, Charlie, you doing better, man?”

“Yeah, I’m all right. I’ve gotta say, though, I do have an odd desire to kill some Endermen right now,” replied Charlie.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about, man! Enderman huuuuunt!” DZ sang, pumping his fist in the air and doing a little dance of excitement.

“Come on, guys. Let’s suit up and get out of here,” said Kat, pulling her armour out of Oob’s chest.

After they had put on all their armour and equipped themselves with all their weapons, the four players and dog set out into the desert, with Oob, Mella, Blerge and Stull waving goodbye from their house.

“OK guys, so here’s the plan,” said Kat. “We’ll all just look around the desert. The terrain is pretty flat out here, so we shouldn’t have much trouble finding any Endermen. When someone sees one, they call out, and everyone jumps to that player’s back to defend them. How many Ender Pearls do we have again?”

“Well,” replied DZ, scratching his head, “I had six. What about you guys?”

“I got two last night,” said Charlie.

“And I got one,” added Stan.

“Excellent!” said Kat, grinning. “We only need three more! All right, everyone, start looking!”

Stan was excited. He had not realized just how few Ender Pearls they still needed to collect. He started scanning the darkening horizon, and the sun had just ducked out of sight behind the distant hills when Stan spotted his first Enderman. It was holding a sand block, and upon realizing it was being watched, its jaw dropped, and it stared back and shook as if it were racked with spasms.

“I’ve got one!” yelled Stan, and the other three players rushed to defend his back. Sure enough, when the Enderman appeared behind Stan, it immediately found itself cut by two swords, an axe, and a pickaxe before it teleported away. It reappeared an instant later behind Kat, who spun backwards and decapitated it. She looked down at the tall, black corpse.

“Yes!” she exclaimed, as she scooped up a turquoise pearl from the Enderman’s body. “Ten down, two to go!”

And sure enough, the Enderman hunting was quick from there on out. With the desert plains providing minimum obstructions to their vision, they were easily able to locate two more Endermen very quickly and fought them by adopting the same strategy. Of the two, however, only one yielded an Ender Pearl.

“Yeah, that happens sometimes,” said DZ, seeing the look of outrage on Kat’s face as she found that the second Enderman had no pearls. “It’s no big deal. We’ll just kill another one.”

No sooner did DZ say that than Stan sensed a presence behind him. He spun around, ready to combat an incoming mob, but what he saw instead caught him totally off guard. Had he not been wearing an iron chestplate, Leonidas’s arrow would have impaled his heart. He gave a short shout of pain that alerted the others to the presence of his assailant.

They wasted no time in reacting. Kat and DZ hastily drew their bows and fired two arrows in Leonidas’s direction. He ducked one and the other caught in the wood of his bow. Charlie and Kat rushed in to engage Leonidas at close range, where they had their advantage. DZ, however, was otherwise occupied, as Geno had just burst out of the ground, diamond sword glinting in the moonlight. Stan pulled himself to his feet, watching as DZ and Geno, probably the two most powerful swordsmen he had ever seen, locked blades in ferocious combat.

Stan became aware of a sizzling behind him. He spun around and brought his axe down into the line of redstone dust on the ground, cutting off the electric charge that would have activated the TNT block that had somehow appeared directly behind him. He destroyed the TNT block in one punch, and he drew his axe to combat Becca, who was now rushing in to engage him.

Becca may have been the demolition expert of RAT1, but she certainly knew her way with a sword. Stan had had quite a bit of experience, and his prowess with the axe had doubled since he first learned the skill from Jayden in the Adorian Village. Yet Becca was able to fight him on an equal level. It was only by a lucky uppercut that his axe managed to knock Becca’s iron sword out of her hand and into the air.

Becca was not deterred. She immediately drew two fire charges, and with a quick flick of the wrist she was gone in a billow of black smoke. The force of the small fire knocked Stan backwards, and as he looked up he saw that there were also plumes of smoke where Leonidas and Geno had just stood. No sooner had he opened his mouth to ask where they had gone than an arrow came flying out of the smoke and embedded itself into Stan’s right forearm, which was unprotected by his armour.

Though there was pain shooting up and down his arm, Stan did not allow himself to look at the wound. Instead, he drew his bow and fired arrows into the smoke, dodging the ones that flew back out towards him, until he heard a grunt of pain that told him that he had hit his mark. Only then did Stan allow himself to yank the arrow out of his arm.

Stan ignored the throbbing pain, gritted his teeth and looked around. Becca was now engaging DZ in combat by sending fire at him with flint and steel, and Geno was fighting Kat. Stan did not see Charlie at all. The smoke in front of him had subsided enough for him to see the figure of Leonidas drawing another arrow.

Stan spun his axe around in midair to deflect the arrow, and he charged Leonidas. Leonidas fired two more arrows, but Stan simply knocked them aside with his weapon. Just as Stan was about to cut Leonidas’s bow in two with his axe, he caught the glint of something in Leonidas’s hand. Stan tried to change his course, but Leonidas had already thrown the potion bottle at Stan, and it burst on his forehead, dazing him and knocking him to the ground.

Stan felt dizzy, and the world spun around him. He was vaguely aware of wisps of grey smoke rising off his body, and found that he didn’t even have enough energy to lift himself up off the ground. Though he was aware that his axe was still clasped in his hand, Stan knew that whatever that potion was, it had dulled his nerves and reflexes. As he became aware of this, he also realized that Leonidas was pinning him to the ground with his foot, and he was yelling to Geno and Becca.

There was screaming, Stan was sure of it, and it was a girl. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Becca still fighting with DZ, and he knew that it must have been Kat who had fallen fighting Geno. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw Geno being pushed back by frantic attacks from both Rex and Charlie, clearly enraged at the state of Kat, whom Stan could not see. He knew, though, what he must do.

Leonidas was shooting arrows in Charlie’s direction, still standing on Stan. He therefore didn’t notice as Stan, with a great deal of focus to overcome the groggy effects of the potion, released his axe and fumbled around with his hand until his fingers clasped on his bow. Stan’s head was throbbing with the effort of moving, but he knew that this was the only way to save Kat. Feeling like his head was about to split open, Stan’s shaky hands notched an arrow in the bowstring, pulled back and fired.

The arrow shot straight upwards and into Leonidas’s tunic, through the leather into his chest. The wound was not deep, and Stan doubted that it would be fatal, but Leonidas still cried out in pain and surprise as he tumbled backwards off Stan’s chest.

The relief in weight helped Stan’s focus immensely. Immediately, the effects of the potion were only half as bad. Stan was now able to sit up. He saw Kat lying unconscious on the ground, and he noticed Geno turn for a moment and see his injured teammate. In the second of lost focus, Rex’s body slammed Geno in the stomach, knocking him backwards. He skidded across the ground, finally stopping when his head slammed into a nearby cactus. The thorns entered his head, and he lay limp and unmoving on the ground.

Stan heard a clang. He whipped his head around but regretted it as soon as he did, his head still aching from Leonidas’s potion. He watched Becca’s sword flying into the air. Wasting no time, she kicked DZ in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and ran. “Come on, Leo!” she cried as she sprinted off into the night.

Stan became aware that Leonidas was no longer next to him. He had gotten up and was now slinging Geno’s unconscious form over his back. He made to follow Becca, but then he stopped for a minute. He turned back to look at the players. DZ was still doubled over, and Rex was still growling in Leonidas’s direction, but Stan looked at Leonidas. There was something in his eyes, Stan suddenly realized, something that Stan couldn’t place. Was it pity? Sadness? Jealousy? Whatever it was, Stan knew it was out of place in the ruthless assassin that Leonidas was.

“Leo, run!” came Becca’s cries. DZ had gotten back to his feet now and, his face contorted in rage, had strung an arrow pointed at Leonidas. Then, with one last look at the three of them, Leonidas was gone in a burst of fire charges. DZ’s arrow flew into the fire and hit nothing but air.

In a moment, however, Stan realized that this was not true. A figure appeared from nowhere, engulfed in flames: an Enderman, DZ’s arrow sticking from its chest. Stan didn’t bother drawing a weapon. The monster was on fire, and it would die before it could reach him. Sure enough, the tall, spindly figure succumbed to death at Stan’s feet, leaving the twelfth Ender Pearl on the sand as the body evaporated.

Suddenly, Stan remembered what had happened to Kat. He ran over to her and saw that Geno’s sword had cut across her chest, just below her neck. Stan wasted no time in pulling out one of his two remaining Healing Potions and administering it to the wound. The cut instantly sealed, and Kat, though remaining asleep, gave a deep breath that Stan took to mean that she would be all right.

Stan was in deep thought as he sat on the front steps of Oob’s house. Mella and Blerge were inside the house caring for Kat, who was now lying unconscious in a bed. Charlie was in the village library, using the crafting table there to turn their Ender Pearls and Blaze Rods into the twelve Eyes of Ender that they would need to locate and enter the End. DZ, Oob, Ohsow the village butcher, Stull, Sequi and the Iron Golem were congregated around the well, talking and playing together.

Stan was aware that the next day they were to fight a great battle, and as he sat there with nothing to do but wait for the others to finish their tasks, he found it the perfect time to contemplate the thoughts that had become present in his mind over the course of their journey.

After last night, Leonidas was at the front of his mind. Stan wasn’t sure what it was, but there was definitely something off about the way that he had looked at them. He had fought Leonidas twice so far, and both times the player had initiated violence against Stan and his friends for no good reason. Stan had therefore marked him as equal in savagery to Geno, Becca, King Kev and the lot of them. Still, something about that look from the previous night made Stan feel slightly guilty about classifying him as such.

Then there was Mr A. They had thankfully not seen Mr A since their encounter in the abandoned mine shaft, but the Griefer’s self-professed motives for his hatred of Stan and his friends seemed awfully misguided. That was, assuming that anything he said was at all true, which seemed more unlikely the more Stan thought about it. What Stan had heard about Avery007 from the Apothecary was that he was a kind player, someone who stood up for the rights of those not able to do so for themselves. Stan could not imagine any scenario in which Avery might befriend a dark-hearted Griefer like Mr A.

He was definitely lying, decided Stan, and he told himself so firmly. Still, Stan believed that Mr A had fabricated the story based on a real experience. He had seemed too passionate while telling the story for it to not have some basis in fact. That being said, it was still true that Mr A’s hatred was ill advised, and Stan intended to tell him so should they ever meet again.

Stan’s thoughts eventually settled on himself. For some reason, everybody seemed to see something special in him. Crazy Steve had seen it, Sally had seen it, and Kat had seen it, too. Though he couldn’t pinpoint what it was, Stan believed that there was something, some force, some otherworldly entity, that influenced him in difficult situations. Despite the fact that he knew nothing of what that power was, how he was able to use it, or whether or not it even existed, he knew that this power of questionable reality would be put to the ultimate test in the End.

There was one more thing that Stan would definitely have liked to think about, dwell on, and consider the possibilities of. However, he refused to let himself think too heavily on it, for it might distract him in the End. No, not until he had conquered the End would he allow himself to think about Sally.

It was just as well, thought Stan as he became aware of Charlie leaving the house. His thinking time was officially over. He stood up and walked over to Charlie, meeting him in the middle of the gravel path.

“You’ve got them?” asked Stan in a whisper, though he was not sure why he spoke in this manner.

“Yeah,” replied Charlie, and he held up one of the Eyes of Ender. It was the same size and shape of the Ender Pearl from which it was crafted, but it looked like a green cat’s eye with a constricted pupil. Even as Charlie held it inactive in his hand, Stan felt a sense of electricity, as if the Eye itself was emitting energy into the air. Upon closer inspection, Stan noticed tiny wisps of purple smoke rising from the eye.

Charlie pulled the other eleven Eyes of Ender from his inventory, and he grinned. “Awesome, aren’t they? We are officially all set to go into the End.”

Stan was glad to see Charlie in such a good mood. What with Lemon’s death and Kat’s injury, their time in the NPC village had seen Charlie grimmer than Stan would have believed possible of him. Besides being worried about the state of his friend, Stan knew that Charlie would need to be confident and in high spirits for their epic foray into the End.

Stan and Charlie were still admiring the Eyes of Ender when DZ walked over to them, Oob and Ohsow in tow.

“So a horse walks into a bar, and the bartender says, ‘why the long face?’” said DZ, and the two villagers burst into hysterical fits of laughter. DZ walked over to talk to Stan and Charlie as Oob and Ohsow inquired as to what horses and bartenders were.

“So, we’ve got the Eyes, then? Excellent!” he exclaimed as his question was answered by the grins on both of their faces and the green orbs in Charlie’s hands. “So we’re going to leave tomorrow?”

“I guess so,” replied Stan, “providing that Kat is feeling up to it.”

At that exact moment, the door to Oob’s house flew open, and out of the doorway burst Kat. She wasn’t wearing any armour, and there was a leather band across her chest where Geno had cut her, but besides that, she seemed back to her normal self. She literally ran out of the house and took a flying leap, landing right next to the boys.

“Hey, Kat! You’re awfully energetic for someone who almost got herself cut open,” said Charlie with a smirk.

“Are you kidding? I feel awesome!” she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “Blerge and Mella made a bunch of bread, and Moganga added some stuff called glowstone dust to it, and that stuff made me feel so much better!” She turned to Stan. “I owe you a huge thanks though, Stan. Without that potion, Moganga said that I would have died.”

“Ah, it’s no big deal,” said Stan, shrugging but giving a humble grin all the same. “You would have done the same for me.”

“Very true,” replied Kat.

“So, Kat, I take it by the fact that you’re more energetic than we are that you’re gonna be able to go into the End tomorrow?” Charlie asked.

“Are you kidding? If you guys weren’t tired, I’d be willing to go right now!”

“Well, I just finished a nap earlier. I’m not tired at all,” said Charlie.

“Yeah, same here,” said DZ.

“Me, too,” said Stan, his face lighting up with excitement. “So … are you guys ready? You want to go into the End right now?”

There was no hesitation. Kat, Charlie and DZ all nodded at the same time.

“OK,” said Stan, his eyes blazing. “Let’s get ready.”

The NPC villagers were all disappointed to hear that the players were leaving the village. According to DZ, they had all become very fond of the players, and of DZ and Charlie in particular. Nonetheless, the villagers all rose magnificently to the challenge of supplying the players with the supplies that they would need to conquer the End. While the villagers were usually unwilling to give anything up unless in exchange for emeralds, which they saw as a form of currency, the villagers gave the players everything that they could.

The farmers, including Oob and his family, supplied the villagers with a generous amount of bread so that they would be well fed on their expedition. The players also received a copious restocking of arrows from the farmers, and Charlie was given flint and steel from a villager named Vella. Leol, the village blacksmith who lived in the forge, was probably the most helpful of all. He replaced Stan’s and Kat’s weapons with a diamond axe and a diamond sword, respectively. He also gave each player a diamond helmet and chestplate. Moganga helped in her own way. She took the players’ diamond gear, and after fifteen minutes, she emerged from the church with the gear glowing with enchantments of Protection for the armour and Sharpness for the swords.

In return for all these commodities, the villagers only asked for them to do anything possible to take down King Kev.

The sun was high in the sky when the four players, suited up and equipped with weapons, lined up facing the villagers. Stan looked out onto the faces of the villagers, particularly those of Stull and Sequi, who were seated on the shoulders of the Iron Golem, and of Blerge and Mella, who were holding hands as tears rolled down their cheeks. Though it would have been normal, none of the villagers were wandering.

Oob stepped forwards from the villagers and the Iron Golem. He was speaking for the entirety of the village’s population of ten.

“Brave players, we would like to thank you for the services that you have done us personally in killing the Spider Jockey that had plagued our village. We would also like to thank you for the work you are doing to make life on this server the best possible, not just for the people of our village, but for the citizens of this server as a whole. You are welcome back to our village at any time that you would like, and you will be welcomed with open arms. Goodbye, and good luck.”

The entire village simultaneously nodded in unison. Stan was more touched by this simple gesture from these simple people than he had been from anything he had seen in Minecraft so far. Even if it hadn’t been for the Adorian Village or the deaths of Blackraven and Crazy Steve and the like, he would have been very keen to defeat the King for the sole purpose of making life better for these NPCs.

Stan didn’t hear what Charlie said in response to this. He was too busy reaffirming the image of King Kev in his mind as public enemy number one for abusing these people and all other people in Elementia. As the four players gave an about-face and headed away from the village, Stan was surer than ever that there was nothing in the End that was unsurpassable if they kept in mind the image of an Elementia free of King Kev.

CHAPTER 24

WITHIN THE STRONGHOLD

The trek through the desert was long and drawn out, as Stan had expected. He knew that the Ender Desert was large, but he hadn’t realized just how expansive the biome really was. Stan had been to forests, plains and jungles since he had been in Minecraft, but this desert biome was by far the largest that he had encountered, and it all looked the same. There were small knolls of sand blocks scattered here and there, and cacti dotted the landscape, punctuated by an occasional pool of lava or water.

Stan didn’t understand how Charlie, who was navigating, didn’t get lost in the endless dune sea. He walked up to ask him about it at one point, but he didn’t need to, because he saw. Charlie had an Eye of Ender in his hand, and every so often he would toss it into the air. In a burst of purple particles, the eye would float forward a few blocks in a certain direction and then fall back into Charlie’s outstretched hand. Charlie seemed focused, so he didn’t ask, but Stan believed that the Eyes were most likely floating towards the entrance to the End.

Stan fell back next to Kat. “So do you have any ideas, at all, about the End? Like where it is or what’s in there?” he asked her.

Kat glanced at him and smirked. “Honestly, man, I have no idea where the End is. And frankly, whenever I think about what we’re actually gonna find there, I end up almost peeing my pants. Whatever it is, though, it is not gonna be easy to get to. I’m willing to put money on the fact that the King was only able to make a stash there because he was able to use his operating powers.”

“What are operating powers?” asked Stan. At Kat’s look of disbelief, he said, “Well, I’ve heard a couple of people mention them before, but I’ve never actually found out what they are.”

“Well,” said Kat, “operating powers are special powers that you get when you start a server, or you can be given them from somebody else with operating powers. Basically, if you have operating powers, you get to be totally in control. You can create and destroy any blocks you want instantly, you can shoot arrows and fireballs from your fingers, you can create explosions anywhere you want and you can fly.” Now it was Stan’s turn to make a face of disbelief. “Yeah, that’s right, fly. Really fast, too. Operating powers make you a Minecraft superhero. Also, you can let people back on the server after they’ve been banned.”