The New Order (13 page)

The face of Libroru's house had been completely blown apart. Scattered blocks were lying all over the ground, and there was a crater where the stairs had been. Despite his every instinct to look away, to avoid seeing the horror before him, Leonidas's eyes traveled downward to the lifeless body of Libroru, lying in the street in front of the crater beside the corpse of the boss. Most alarming, however, was the Iron
Golem that had walked around the side of the house and was staring at the scene before it.

Leonidas's stomach clenched. His grief over Libroru's death was completely washed away by his immediate fear of the giant metal behemoth standing before him. The Golem's head shifted from side to side with a series of ominous creaks, surveying the scene around him. Leonidas realized how the scene looked—a blown-out house surrounded by the body of a villager and the three players tasked to defend the village, with Leonidas as the only one still alive.

Leonidas could not fight the Iron Golem. He had heard far too many stories of players challenging these iron monsters to try something that foolish. The Golems were faster than the players, making escape a non-option, and Leonidas's arrows would simply bounce straight off a Golem's solid iron body. The only attacks strong enough to damage an Iron Golem were TNT or an exceptionally powerful strike from a diamond sword, neither of which were available to Leonidas.

But what was he thinking? He didn't want to kill the Iron Golem at all. The Golem was the only thing truly protecting the villagers from the evils of the Minecraft world, and if it were to fall, then the village would be in serious trouble. He only had two options, both of which seemed equally impossible: either convince the Golem that he was not a threat to the village, or escape.

Leonidas slowly pulled himself up, ignoring the screaming pain in his legs, and forced himself to quell the anguish of Libroru's death. He remembered Libroru from the old days, when the villager would give Leonidas a free cookie every day and would laugh hysterically at Leonidas's terrible jokes. Regardless of how much he wanted to grieve, Leonidas looked the Iron Golem in the eye, forcing himself to focus on the metal beast in front of him.

“I am not responsible for this,” he choked out, painstakingly staring into the Golem's emotionless red eyes. “The players that said they were protectin' the villagers were actually just bullyin' them. I tried to stop them, so they killed Libroru, and tried to kill me. I promise, I meant no harm to any of ya. Please, just let me be.”

A moment of silence, in which the Golem stared Leonidas down, and he stared back, nervousness ripe on his face. Then, in an instant, the Golem took off, moving faster than Leonidas had seen any mob move, and launched itself into the air, its giant iron arm headed straight toward Leonidas.

Leonidas barely managed to roll to the side in time to dodge the giant fist, terror tripling his crippled speed. The Golem wasted no time in continuing to attack, wildly flinging its giant iron arms. Leonidas fell backward, the giant iron hand coming within inches of his face. Leonidas looked around wildly, desperate for anything he could use to buy an escape.

His eyes stopped on a diamond sword lying on the ground. Although the bodies of all four of the dead had vanished, the sword of the bearded player still remained. Leonidas snatched it just as the Iron Golem threw another punch toward him. Leonidas kicked off not an instant too soon, scooting himself through the giant's legs. Leonidas swung his sword across the back of the Golem's knees, and the iron behemoth toppled to the ground with an almighty clang.

Leonidas jumped to his feet and gave an audible scream of pain. With his survival instincts upped to the maximum, he had forgotten about the spiking pains in his legs, and his knees buckled. He glanced over his shoulder as he fell. The Iron Golem was back on its feet, and it was turning around to ready another charge at Leonidas. He got back to his feet and sprinted as fast as his crippled legs could carry him, aware of an omnipresent metallic clanging growing louder and louder behind him at an alarming rate.

Leonidas cut a sharp right-hand turn at the corner of a house and ducked into an alleyway, instantly feeling a rush of wind behind him as the Iron Golem sprinted past. He heard the scrabble of gravel on iron as the Golem attempted to reorient itself, and realized this was his chance to escape. He eyed the open desert in front of him. If he could just make it out into the dune sea, he could return tomorrow and
explain his predicament to the villagers, who would tell the Iron Golem to calm down. . . .

His thought was cut off as he stumbled over a small sand pit, tumbled through the air for a moment, and face-planted. The diamond sword flew from his hand and clattered across the blocks. Leonidas gave another shout of pain. He had landed on a rock-solid surface of sandstone. The ground hit Leonidas's body like a giant smack. The pain in his body was suddenly universal, no longer confined to just his legs.

Leonidas managed to flop over onto his back, just in time to see the Iron Golem staring at him from the top of the sand ledge. Leonidas only held the gaze of the beast for a moment before it swung its arms backward, and with an almighty leap, flew through the air, fist outstretched and headed straight for Leonidas. The reaction was instinctive. In the space of a second, he sought a way to protect himself. His eyes fell on the sword. He snatched it up and was just spinning it into a defensive block as the iron body made contact.

Though his eyes were closed, Leonidas could hear the earsplitting metal clang that reverberated around him, piercing his ears, but he could not feel the impact. He supposed that this was what happened when you died. Finally delivered from all pain, you couldn't feel the impact that killed you. As Leonidas opened his eyes to see what being dead looked like, he was confused. The world wasn't all black. It wasn't
all white either. All that Leonidas could see was what looked like a giant mass of iron covered in vines, sitting inches away from his face.

Bewildered and a little frightened as to what exactly was going on, Leonidas reached out to touch the iron wall. He winced. His arm still throbbed from the impact against the ground. But . . . hold on . . . if his arm still hurt, then . . . that meant that he wasn't dead! How was he not dead?

Leonidas gritted his teeth as he raised both of his arms, preparing his psyche for the mental and physical strain of moving this iron mass off of him. He was caught totally off guard, however, when the iron mass moved quite easily at the slightest touch. One good push later and the metal body rolled over onto its side. Leonidas struggled into a sitting position and looked to see exactly what the iron mass was. What he saw knocked the wind out of him.

The Iron Golem lay on the ground beside him. The beast was unmoving, eyes closed, completely unscathed except for its chest. On the left side of its chest, right where its heart would be, a diamond sword stuck out, driven deep into the Iron Golem. Only a remarkably powerful force could drive a sword that deep into an Iron Golem. As Leonidas realized the truth, that the Iron Golem had impaled itself on the diamond sword as it attacked him, a feeling of dread washed over him.

The sensation doubled an instant later as the giant Iron
Golem's body faded into nothingness, leaving only two iron ingots and a red rose in its wake.
This was a peaceful monster
, thought Leonidas as tears welled up in his eyes,
devoted only to protectin' the village and the villagers within. And now it's dead, and the villagers have nothin' to protect them from the dangers of the night.

“My God,” said Leonidas in horror.

“Leo-nidas?”

Leonidas spun around, and the pain in his body from the sudden movement was nothing compared to the pain that gripped his stomach, heart, and lungs as he saw the entire population of the NPC village, Moganga at the forefront, staring down into the pit at him. All the villagers had a mix of horror, bewilderment, and fear on their faces as they looked at Leonidas, sitting alongside a diamond sword and the pitiful remains of their great defender. Only Moganga's face showed the emotion that pierced the armor of Leonidas's soul: unspeakable sadness.

“Leo-nidas, did you kill Plat, the Iron Golem?” Moganga asked.

Leonidas started to panic. He had no intention of lying to Moganga, and knew that she would be able to tell if he did. He only prayed that she'd be willing to listen to his reasoning.

“Yes, Moganga, I did, but—”

“And you also killed the three men protecting us from
outside dangers to the village,” she interjected with equal gravity, the seeds of anger present as well.

“Yes, I did,” said Leonidas, his voice cracking and the tears started to run. “But Moganga, I swear I only did it to—”

“It does not matter, Leo-nidas,” replied Moganga, looking intimidating and furious against the blazing red and pink of the rising sun at her back. “Murder is not allowed in this village. You are to leave now.”

“No, please, Moganga,” wailed Leonidas as he sunk to his knees, hands pressed together before him, pleading for mercy. “I didn't mean to do anythin' to hurt ya, I only wanted to help you guys!” Sobs were interspersed with the words now as Leonidas spilled his heart out, begging his only true friends in the world to forgive him. “Don't ya remember? I'm the Sacred One, I gave my life away to save you guys! Do ya remember? I love y'all, you're my family!”

Leonidas glanced up at Moganga pleadingly. Only pitiless eyes shown down on him. Then the villager priest spoke five words that hurt Leonidas more than any weapon ever could:

“There is no Sacred One.”

Leonidas felt nothing but horrified shock, not willing to believe what he had just heard. He looked at the faces of the other villagers. The child villagers silently wept, burying their faces into the hems of their parents' robes. All the grown villagers now wore expressions identical to that of Moganga.
Their leader had spoken, and the subjects had followed without question. Even Blerge and Mella, though there were still visible tearstains on their faces, now showed only contempt for Leonidas. The villagers were all united under their leader, ready to stand against any threat to their village. And now Leonidas was one of those threats.

Leonidas turned. He could not look at the villagers any longer. He wasn't crying anymore, either. His grief was beyond tears. He was dead to his family. The last memories of joy and happiness that he had in Elementia were now corrupted in his mind. So, with his back to the villagers, Leonidas walked toward the desert, headed for Nocturia, ready to return to the only thing he was really good at: destroying.

CHAPTER 13
THE NATION OF THE NOCTEM ALLIANCE

T
his meeting of the Council of Eight has come to order,” read Stan hastily, desperate to get through all the formalities of the meeting as quickly as possible so they could discuss the problem at hand. “Do I need to take a roll call? No, I don't, I can see that everyone's here, so let's talk about this.”

“I've gotta say, Stan,” said Jayden arrogantly, “for somebody who claims to care so much about doing exactly what the law says, you certainly rushed through that opening.”

“Eh, shut up, Jay!” snapped DZ in exasperation. “That part of the opening ceremony is stupid anyway, I don't even know why we put it in there. And he's right, we can't waste time now. We have to figure out how to deal with the Noctem Alliance's country, and we're gonna have to figure it out fast.”

“Sounds pretty hypocritical to me,” replied G, who seemed to be enjoying the quickly mounting tension way too much. “So you're saying that when Archie died, you still wanted to do everything totally to the letter, not skipping anything, but now that the Noctems have their own country, that's a real emergency where we can't waste time?”

“Now see here—” started Charlie.

“Stop it, arguing is just wasting more time,” said
Stan, not loudly but sternly. Charlie stopped talking, while G and Blackraven, who had both opened their mouths to respond, closed them again.

“As you all know, the Noctem Alliance has founded their own country out in the tundra, which they call the Nation of the Noctem Alliance. Obviously, we've gotta do something about it. And honestly,” said Stan, “I'm really not sure what we should do. Ideas, anyone?”

“Well, I put forward the idea of marching out there and burning it to the ground,” said Jayden, almost disinterested, as if this were the most obvious solution in the world.

“I second that,” said Blackraven, raising his hand.

“Third,” added G, doing the same.

“Are you serious?” exclaimed DZ. “You guys do realize that now that the Noctem Alliance has their own country, everything is different, right?”

“I don't follow,” replied G, a blank look on his face.

“DZ's right,” said the Mechanist wisely. “Now that the Noctem Alliance has founded their own country, it means they're organized, and more important, we know where to find them. This opens up the doors to talking to the Noctem Alliance, and solving our problems peacefully instead of fighting.”

“Are you serious?” said Blackraven in disbelief. “These people have been waging open warfare on us for the past few
weeks! And now that we finally know where they are, you don't want to wipe them out?”

“That's just the thing,” said Charlie. “They aren't trying to hide it. If they're gonna keep attacking us, then why would they willingly tell us where their base is? And they aren't trying to keep it from us either. I mean, that messenger willingly told us the exact location of the base when we asked.”

“So what? That doesn't change the fact that they've attacked us before!” G pointed out.

“You know, the Noctem Alliance isn't just attacking us for the sake of it,” replied Charlie. “We're only really fighting them because they're still prejudiced against lower-level players. And you know, while that view is obviously wrong and misguided, maybe for now, it's not a bad idea to give the prejudiced people a place to go where they can be away from everyone else.”

“You're endorsing them!” yelled Jayden in shock. “You want to give the bigots their own country and not do anything about it! That's just handing them power! If they have their own country, they'll be able to get their own resources, and then they'll declare war on us!”

“And that's better than what's happening right now?” Kat shot back. G's head spun around and looked at her in shock. Clearly, he had not expected Kat to speak. “Right now, the Noctem Alliance is fighting a war that we're not prepared to
fight. If we let them have their own country, then yes, they'll be stronger, but at least we'll know how to deal with them, instead of this game of whack-a-mole we seem to be playing right now.”

“And think about it,” continued DZ. “We're the Grand Republic of Elementia! We've got all the resources in the world at our fingertips, while they're stuck in the middle of the tundra. If we end up fighting a regular war, then we're gonna win.”

“Enough talk,” said Stan, now sure of what he had to do, and praying that the others would agree. “Here's what I propose. I'll go out to the capital of the NNA, and I'll . . .”

“The NNA?” asked Blackraven skeptically.

“The Nation of the Noctem Alliance,” Stan responded offhandedly. “Anyway, I'll go out to the capital of the NNA, and I'll take Bill, Ben, and Bob with me for protection. I'll talk to the leader of the NNA, and I'll try to open up peace talks with the country. All in favor?”

Stan raised his hand into the air. Charlie, DZ, and Kat thrust their hands up with a sense of determined purpose. The Mechanist raised his hand calmly.

“And all those in favor of burning Nocturia to the ground?” said Stan with a smile, well aware that he already had a majority.

Jayden and G thrust their hands up just like Charlie, Kat,
and DZ had done, as if to show just how much they believed in their votes, even if they didn't count for anything. Blackraven raised his hand slowly, still with purpose, but not with the same vivacity as the younger players.

Gobbleguy was the only one who didn't raise his hand, and just looked timidly around at both sides, seemingly unable to decide. Stan sighed. He was getting really sick of Gobbleguy's indecision every time they had to make a choice. Stan was going to have to stage an intervention with him some time, because he had no business being a councilman. He had only been elected for his role in the rebellion against King Kev, not for his leadership. Stan put the thought aside for now. He had other, more urgent matters to attend to.

“Okay then, I'll talk to Bill, Ben, and Bob. We'll leave tomorrow morning and probably be back by tomorrow night,” Stan said as he stood up.

“Oh, and by the way, probably not a good idea to mention this to the general population,” Blackraven said, a little bit of resentment from the vote lingering in his voice. “I don't think the citizens will agree with us talking to the NNA instead of fighting them.” This was met by general nods all around the table.

Stan began to head for the door, but he was stopped by Kat's voice. “Hold up, did you say tomorrow night?” she asked.

“Yeah. Why, is that a problem?” Stan replied.

“Well, kind of,” she said, looking concerned. “Tomorrow is the semifinals of the Spleef tournament.”

“So?” Stan asked.

“So, Ben is on the team,” DZ added as the realization spread across his face.

“What does it matter?” Stan asked, bewildered that this was even coming up. “We're in the middle of a war, you guys are just gonna have to forfeit the tournament!”

“Are you crazy?” shot out of Kat's mouth as “No way!” flew out of DZ's.

“We can't forfeit, these are the semifinals of the most popular competition in Elementia!” exclaimed Kat. “What would all the fans think?”

“Are you telling me,” Stan said in a rage, not believing what he was hearing, “that you're willing to blow an opportunity to end all this fighting just because you don't want to disappoint your fans?”

“Stan, may I say something, please?” the Mechanist said before DZ could respond.

“Go ahead!” exclaimed Stan, ready for the Mechanist to talk some sense into Kat and DZ.

“I think they should compete in the tournament,” the Mechanist responded coolly.

“Wait, what?” Stan yelled, shocked that the oldest and
probably wisest of the council was taking their side.

“Stan, think about it. You may be fighting a war, but you're also president of a country, and it is your job to keep the people happy. They've elected us to lead them because they trust us to take care of their problems, and they don't want to be affected by the problems themselves.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Stan asked.

“If you take Ben with you and force the Zombies to forfeit, then it would cause a huge upset among the people . . . the people that you pledged to keep happy, Stan. If that was the only option, then it would be a different story entirely, but in this case, you could easily bring someone else in Ben's place.”

“I'll volunteer,” said Charlie. “I'll go out to Nocturia with you, Stan.”

Stan considered this for a moment, then nodded and said, “Okay, good point. Charlie, you, Bill, and Bob can come with me. We'll leave tomorrow morning.”

“Okay then,” said Charlie, nodding.

“And guys,” added Stan, looking over at DZ and Kat, who were looking excited, as the Spleef match was the only thing on their minds. “Try to win tomorrow. And take Oob to the match, won't you? He's gotta be really confused by all this, and the little guy could use a good time.” He smiled.

“Yes, sir,” they replied in unison, huge grins on their faces.

“Okay, everybody, move out!” declared Charlie, and all of them filed out at various speeds, ready to make preparations for the events of the following day. However, the last three players to leave the room had dark thoughts running through their heads.

Jayden was left completely staggered by the entire ordeal. Since Stan, Kat, Charlie, DZ, and the Mechanist were always in agreement over everything, they had five out of nine votes on the council. That was more than half the votes, which meant that the five of them could pass any law or action they wanted, regardless of what he, G, or Blackraven thought. Jayden felt so powerless, and there was nothing he could do about it. Fuming, Jayden stormed out of the council room, wondering how to make things right.

G sat for a moment, still dumbfounded by the fact that Kat had voted against him. They had been so happy back during the campaign against King Kev, when they had gotten together on a whim and had always been on the same page. It all changed once they won. Kat had been drifting further and further from him ever since they joined the council, despite his best efforts to keep her happy, going so far as to ditch work to meet up with her. G left the council room in confusion, thinking about how to get the old Kat back.

At last, there was only one remaining councilman at the table. Blackraven's face showed no emotion, though it was
clear that gears were turning in his head. After a little while, he smiled. He didn't know exactly how, and he didn't know precisely when, but as Blackraven slowly walked out of the council chamber, he had faith that everything would turn out for the best.

Stan was shivering terribly. He had no idea that Minecraft could get so cold. He had been through forests, jungles, deserts, and mountains since he had joined Elementia, but he had never been to a snow biome before, and he was totally unprepared for it. Charlie felt the same way, but the two of them were absolutely on cloud nine in comparison to Bill and Bob, who had spent a good deal of their time in Elementia marooned in the Nether, the dimension of lava and fire. Stan remembered Bill once saying that the desert was pleasantly cool to them, and the forest was downright cold. Now, they were in a biome that was below freezing. Although they appeared to be holding up pretty well, Stan knew they were truly dying inside. In fact, the only one of the group who seemed truly unfazed by the winter environment was Ivanhoe the pig.

Stan had been amazed when the four of them had taken the train ride through the Ender Desert and seen the very rigid boundary where the desert ended and the tundra began. Stan had assumed that there would have been at least some
type of divider between the hottest and the coldest of the biomes, but no, the desert and tundra literally bordered each other, with one block being hot and sandy and the one to the right of it being cold and snowy. Maybe they'd make biome generation a little less abrupt in future updates, Stan thought.

Although Charlie had overseen the construction of a network of railroads spanning the entire Ender Desert in the past months, he had not yet expanded into the tundra. Therefore, the four of them had to walk the rest of the way to the NNA. It seemed like they had been trekking in the same direction for hours before finally, Stan could make out the faint glow of lights in the distance. Stan's body tensed as he became aware that they were finally about to meet Lord Tenebris.

In terms of the members of the Noctem Alliance, Stan knew next to nothing. He knew it was composed mainly of prejudiced upper-level players and that one of the leaders was Leonidas, but that was all. Stan felt he could safely assume that Caesar and Minotaurus, as the only other surviving commanders of King Kev's army, were likely to be involved too.

Of the three of them, Caesar had been the highest-ranked, and so for now, Stan was assuming that Caesar had taken the title of Lord Tenebris, which, he had been told by Blackraven, had roots in Latin and meant something like Lord of the Night. Then again, there was always the possibility that Lord Tenebris was another person entirely, one Stan didn't
know about. He guessed he would find out soon enough.

Through the never-ending snowstorm, a massive shape loomed out of the darkness. Stan squinted and saw that he was looking at a lengthy, lofty cobblestone wall. It looked ominous, bringing about a feeling of despair, as the majority of the wall was shrouded in blackness. The only sources of light came from the top of the wall, torches flickering in the howling blizzard but never going out, illuminating figures staring down at Stan and his friends with bows in hand. These players, despite being lit by the only visible light for miles, still seemed somehow shrouded in shadows.

Charlie was trying to keep his cool, and Stan could hear his friend's deep breaths, also visible through steam ejected from his mouth into the frigid air. Bill and Bob did not speak, nor did they look particularly scared from what Stan could see, just serious, in preparation for whatever should be behind that wall.