Quest for Justice (26 page)

“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.

Stan looked around at the room. He realized that this underground chamber of stone and lava might very well be his last view of the Overworld in Minecraft. Taking a deep breath, and with the image of a dead King Kev and a free Elementia in his head, Stan jumped off the portal frame and fell into the black void in a freefall.

W
hereas the travel through the Nether portal had felt as though he were being squeezed through a tube, Stan found that immediately after entering the End portal, he landed feet-first onto a platform of black rock that he recognized as obsidian. And while the Nether had been hot and dry, Stan felt no significant change in the atmosphere of the End other than an apparent dormant static that hung in the air.

Stan looked around and saw that his friends were looking at the room they had spawned in, which appeared to be made of a type of lunar rock similar to the base of the frame of the End portal. They were completely surrounded by it, and Stan felt his stomach drop. Were they underground? Was the task of the End to mine around until they located their goal? He voiced this question to the others, and immediately, the air of the group turned to panic.

“Hey, guys, don't worry, all right?” said Charlie, taking his pickaxe to one of the stone blocks. “I'll mine around a little bit. I seriously doubt that the final challenge of Minecraft would be a gigantic mining world.” Charlie angled his aim diagonally and started to tunnel upward. The others followed him.

The further upward they tunneled, the more Stan's unease grew. As Charlie's pickaxe broke the surface
and struck air, Stan couldn't shake the feeling that there was something . . .

“. . . watching us!” cried Stan as he was charged by a pair of Endermen. He cut the first one on the side with his axe, and it teleported away, while the other one was killed instantly by a lucky shot that took off its head.

“They're everywhere!” yelled DZ as the wounded mob reappeared behind Stan and DZ ended its life with a stab of the sword. “Look down!”

Without thinking, three players obeyed DZ's command and stared at the moon-white ground. Stan heard DZ's calm voice give a command.

“Oob, I need you to look around and tell us how many Endermen are out there.”

“What?” came Oob's disgruntled voice. “Won't the large, scary, black things kill me?”

“Don't worry, you're an NPC. They won't notice you.”

“But . . .”

“Just do it, Oob. I swear you'll be all right,” came DZ's voice, a slight edge to it now.

A few moments later came Oob's response. “They are everywhere. I see their eyes going even far off into the distance. How are we to defeat all of them?”

“Don't worry, guys,” said DZ, as if sensing the air of panic in the group increase tenfold. “I know how we can kill them. Take
these. I found them as we were going through the mountains.” Stan heard DZ fumbling, and a few moments later Stan saw a block land at his feet. It was orange, and it appeared to be some kind of plant, but it was only when Stan picked it up and saw the eerie face carved into it that he realized that it was a pumpkin.

“And what do you expect me to do with this?” came Kat's irate voice from just to the left of Stan.

“Take off your helmet and put it on your head.”

Stan was struck by a sudden notion that his battle with Mr. A may have knocked something loose inside DZ's head. Charlie said in tones of dripping sarcasm, “Yeah, you first, DZ.”

“Gladly,” said DZ calmly, and Stan sensed that he had stood up. He barely viewed DZ standing upright and looking ridiculous with his head stuck into the bottom of the pumpkin. The carved pumpkin face was where DZ's own face should have been.

“DZ, you look like an idiot. Where are you going with this?” hissed Kat, as if she were afraid that talking too loudly would provoke the crowds of Endermen roaming ominously among them.

Stan watched DZ walk right up to an Enderman and stare directly into its eyes. Amazingly, the Enderman didn't begin to shake, teleport behind him, or, for that matter, acknowledge his presence at all. DZ used this to his advantage, and one stab through the chest later, the Enderman was nothing more
than an Ender Pearl sitting idly on the ground.

Before any of them could voice their stunned amazement, DZ explained. “You can see out the eyeholes of the pumpkin, and even though you can't see that great, the obstruction prevents the Endermen from being able to detect you. Seriously, they have no idea that you're even there. You can just walk up to them and kill them.”

Stan didn't need any more encouraging. He ripped his diamond helmet off his head and haphazardly shoved it into his inventory. He proceeded to snatch up the pumpkin and jam it awkwardly onto his head. DZ was definitely right about one thing: the pumpkin did considerably obstruct Stan's vision, and it was only by squinting that he could make out the forms of Kat and Charlie, both adorning pumpkins themselves.

“Alrighty boys . . . and Kat,” said DZ, and Stan was sure from his tone that a manic grin had spread on his face beneath the pumpkin. “Let the Great Enderman Massacre begin!”

Massacre truly was the appropriate word for it, for without being able to detect the players' lines of sight, the Endermen were powerless to stop the players from ambling right up to them and felling them one after another. Even with Oob not helping (his stone hoe was not strong enough to destroy an Enderman in one hit, and the villager certainly was not capable of beating one), all the Endermen that they could see were dead within the space of three minutes.

“Dude, that was awesome!” Charlie called out to Stan as he pulled the axe out of the monster he had just beheaded after throwing the weapon during a back flip.

“Thanks. Frankly, this was so easy, what are you to do but make up trick shots to keep things interesting?” Stan smirked and he pulled the pumpkin from his head and wiped the sweat off his brow. Though he had exerted almost no effort, it was very hot inside the pumpkin head. The others followed in suit.

Now that they had their pumpkins off and no Endermen to deal with, the four players plus Oob took their first real look at the End. The entirety of the ground seemed to be made of the moon-rock-like material, and the sky was a dark static pattern that didn't seem to move and was almost completely black. It was hard to make out the tall, looming pillars that were set against the black sky on first sight. These pillars were a wide square at the base, and extended various distances into the sky. There was a light source illuminating the top of each of the pillars, but Stan was not close enough to see what it was.

The most interesting part was that, as far as Stan could see, the End was not an infinite dimension like the Overworld or the Nether. They were on a moon-rock island, floating in space, with around ten of the tall obsidian pillars protruding from the ground into the static heavens.

Immediately, something about this setup sat wrong with Stan. He looked at the others and saw from her face that
Kat had realized it, too, although DZ and Charlie hadn't. They were still pondering their surroundings, while Oob was wandering off yet again.

“Guys, the End isn't infinite. It's like an island,” said Kat slowly as Stan dragged their villager friend back by the collar, Oob's eyes still unfocused and clueless.

“Yeah, we've noticed,” said Charlie, shrugging. “So what? Easier work for us—fewer places to look.”

“That's just it,” said Stan, dropping Oob and letting him fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes. “Fewer places to look. So why would the King move his stash here, when there are literally unlimited places to hide it in the Overworld or the Nether?”

“I don't know, maybe because there are Endermen everywhere?” stated DZ with the air of someone explaining that Earth revolves around the sun.

“DZ, you four players easily defeated all the Endermen by doing nothing more than putting pumpkins on your heads. Clearly, there is something more dangerous here that will prevent us from searching for the King's possessions,” said Oob.

“He's right, DZ,” said Charlie, realizing that Stan, Kat, and Oob must be correct. “There's definitely something else going on here that's going to stop us from looking for the treasure.”

“And what do you suppose that will be?” asked DZ indignantly, ruffled by Oob having made a more intelligent comment than himself.

Then they heard it. A long, piercing roar cut through the otherwise quiet End environment. It sounded like the scream of an Enderman magnified by a thousand, with elements of tyrannosaurus and elephant noises mixed in to form one ultimate, blood-curdling roar.

“What . . . was . . . that?” whispered Charlie feebly.

“Oh . . . my . . . God,” whispered Stan, as he spotted something in the sky that made his stomach implode with terror.

A pair of purple slits were present in the sky at first glance, but they grew larger, and larger, and larger, and before very long, the eyes of all four players plus Oob were locked in terror as the shape of a massive, black-and-silver winged beast with glowing purple eyes rocketed through the sky and straight toward them.

Not thinking much about it but just acting through a hidden instinct unlocked by fear, Kat, Stan, and DZ simultaneously drew their bows and launched their arrows into the giant monster's face. Stan's and DZ's bounced off the monster's silver scaly forehead, but Kat's arrow sunk straight into the monster's left eye. Right as the monster was about to barrel into them, it gave a roar and thrashed its head in agony before changing course to fly back up into the black sky.

It was then that Stan got his first full look at the monster. What he saw was absolutely horrifying. They had just shot arrows into a gigantic, black dragon. Its mighty wings were
flapping through the air, creating rushes of wind like a jet plane, and a silver-armor exoskeleton ran the length of its body, creating a web of protection extending over its almost-equally-tough-looking black hide.

Stan watched in wonder and foreboding as the wounded dragon circled the black obsidian pillars. Glowing orbs of white energy flew from atop the pillar and onto the dragon's face. The dragon roared again and flew on, and a moment later, Kat's arrow fell to the ground beside the players, having popped out of the dragon's eye.

“Guys, I think whatever's up there is healing him!” exclaimed DZ, his sword drawn and his eyes intensely focused on the dragon.

“Then we've got to destroy it,” said Stan, already formulating a plan in his mind.

“Okay, here's what we do,” said Kat, her brow knitted in determination. “Stan, DZ, you go destroy whatever's on top of that pillar. Charlie, Oob, you two distract the dragon, and don't let it notice Stan and DZ. I don't think the dragon will like us destroying whatever it is up there.”

“What about you?” Stan asked.

“I have a feeling that we're gonna be seeing some more Endermen soon,” said Kat firmly, already pulling the pumpkin back into place on her head. “I'll take care of them. Now go!” she screeched, for she had just noticed the dragon
speeding toward them for another attack. Charlie drew his pickaxe and Oob his hoe, and the two weapons plus Kat's sword simultaneously cut into the dragon's snout, sending it away for the time being.

“DZ! Start grabbing Ender Pearls!” cried Stan, picking up the orbs from the sea of Enderman corpses they had left in their wake.

“What? Why would we do that?” asked DZ incredulously.

“When I was fighting Mr. A, he threw one of these things at me and appeared right next to me with purple smoke all around him,” said Stan, snatching a group of three from the ground. “I think that you can use these things to teleport! Watch this!”

Before DZ could interject, Stan had hummed the Ender Pearl with all his might into the sky, aiming for the top of the black obsidian pillar closest to him. His aim was spot on, and the pearl flew toward the top of the pillar. Stan closed his eyes, and moments later he felt a surge of pain in his knees that caused him to stumble, a sure indicator that something had happened. Once he had regained his footing, Stan opened his eyes.

His plan had worked. Stan was now standing atop one of the looming obsidian pillars. In the center stood a cubic crystal rotating slowly within a pillar of fire erupting from a block of bedrock. The crystal flashed shades of light blue and pink, and on each side, strange red symbols flashed.

“Stan! Where are you?” came DZ's anxious cry from dozens of blocks below him. Stan looked down and saw DZ looking desperately around. He could also see the dragon flying away from Charlie and Oob, indicating that they had scored a hit, and Kat sneaking up behind an Enderman.

“I'm up here!” called Stan. He saw DZ look toward his voice and their eyes locked. “The plan worked! There's some sort of psychic crystal thingy up here. I'm pretty sure that's what's healing the dragon!”

“That's great, Stan! Quick, figure out how to destroy the thing!” came DZ's seemingly quiet yell across the landscape and up to Stan.

Stan decided to go for the most obvious method of destroying it first. He backed up to the very edge of the pillar, wanting to be as far away from the crystal as possible when he tried his method. He notched an arrow and sent it directly into the center of the crystal. There was a superheated flash that made Stan's vision go white for a minute, but when it cleared he saw that the only thing left of the crystal was a block of bedrock that was set on fire.

“Just shoot the crystals, DZ!” Stan called down to his friend. “That makes them blow up!”

“I'll tell you what, Stan!” came DZ's voice from down below. “You destroy the crystals by teleporting around up there, and I'll shoot them down from down here!”

“Sounds like a plan!” Stan yelled back. He looked around and saw that, indeed, each of the pillars did seem to have a crystal rotating on top of it. He knew that they would not be able to properly fight the dragon until all those crystals were destroyed. As scared as he was, he had to give credit to the King. This truly was the ideal hiding place for anything valuable.