Chapter XII: Unendings

Chapter XII: Unendings

Tacky comes to in a fair-sized, empty room of End Stone. He asks where he is and is shocked to hear a reply; a deep, ominous voice responds in the boy’s mind that he is a prisoner and that he had found the voice’s island. After Tacky asks, the voice introduces itself as the Endlord, and it informs Tacky, who looks around wildly for the source of the voice, that it is not there, not even in The End, and is speaking with Tacky telepathically. The panicked boy asks where The Maker is, and the Endlord responds that The Maker is also its prisoner, being held elsewhere.

In another part of The End, The Maker waits impatiently within a bare, 3x1 chamber of End Stone. Suddenly, a terrifying voice speaks in his mind, informing him that he is to die at its—the Endlord’s—mercy. The Endlord rants about how The Maker did not follow its plan and how he was too strong but Tacky was a pushover until The Maker came along. The Maker challenges the Endlord to attack him, brandishing his Enchanted Diamond Sword. The Endlord just laughs, then ponders over how to kill The Maker. Fire suddenly erupts from the ground all across the tiny chamber. The Maker stands calmly in the fire, telling the Endlord that there is no way to kill him. It responds by saying that if it takes his powers away from him, there would be no hope for him. As the fires continue to burn, The Maker suddenly finds himself on fire, pain searing through his whole being. He screams as he burns, while the Endlord laughs, satisfied.

Tacky is shooting Fire-Arrows at the walls of his prison and loudly asking where the Endlord is, when the Endlord’s voice reappears in his mind, informing him that it has returned…and that The Maker is dead. Tacky says that that is not possible, that The Maker is invincible because of his powers, but the Endlord informs him that it had stripped him of his powers, that its power is stronger in The End than in Tacky’s world, The Nether, and the other world. Tacky asks what other world the Endlord is referring to, but the Endlord just laughs. Tacky then asks when he will be set free. The Endlord tells him that he will be its prisoner until it can figure out what to do with him. The boy responds by saying that he could just find the exit and escape, which the Endlord denies. Spotting the narrow, 1x1x3 space in one wall, he smiles, saying that it was too easy. Still holding his Enchanted Bow, Tacky breaks the End Stone that makes up the ceiling of the small space and is greeted by The End’s “sky.” He flies up and out of the hole, realizing after looking back down that the Endlord had trapped him within the small, independent island that he and The Maker had found. The Endlord screams in his head to come back and that it does not want to have to kill him. Tacky continues flying toward the main island; when he is almost above land, he finds himself drawing his Bow against his will. He releases an Arrow into The Void below. Despite this and the Endlord’s continued screams and threats, he continues flying, soon noticing a hole in the ground from which faint smoke billows. He descends into the hole and is shocked to see The Maker laying in a small, linear chamber, scorched and scarred…but alive. The Endlord notices this now, unable to believe it. Suddenly, Tacky draws his bow again against his will, Fire-Arrow pointed at The Maker’s head. He shouts that he will do not such a horrible thing, but the Endlord offers that he had already done some terrible things and that this one is no different. Tacky releases the Arrow, but The Maker rolls out of the way, anticipating Tacky’s move. Tacky fires another and another, and The Maker dodges them all, despite the narrow space. Screaming, Tacky resists firing another one, The Maker slowly and painfully making his way towards and around the boy. When he is behind Tacky, The Maker shouts for him to get to the Exit Portal. Tacky fires the Arrow in his Bow, The Maker grabs onto him, and he flies up through the hole, emerging out into the open End air. The Endlord, out of its mind with rage, screams in the adventurers’ minds to come back. Tacky continues flying toward the Exit Portal and descends into it as quickly as possible, the Endlord’s screams still echoing in his mind, even after he and The Maker leave the mysterious threat behind.

Tacky and The Maker reappear inside The Maker’s Hut. The Maker collapses onto his bed. Tacky leaves him to rest and heal, stepping out into Maker’s Grove. Walking around to the back of the hut, the boy is filled with a bittersweet joy as he sees in the sky the red-orange glow of dawn. He remembers the Endlord and the ordeal that they had just been put through. The identity of the Endlord was never revealed to him, but that would have to wait for another time. For now, Tacky climbs out of Maker’s Grove and climbs to the top of the highest tree nearby and watches as the Faradesia sun rises.

END OF ARC 4

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Played out in-game on 12/26/2012. Written 12/26/2012.

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Chapter XI: Something Different

Chapter XI: Something Different

Tacky and The Maker find themselves standing side-by-side on the Obsidian platform in The End. After flying over to the island of End Stone, The Maker suddenly realizes that something is different in The End since his last visit, although he cannot quite put his finger on what it is. Tacky suggests that the two of them explore the island in search of this “something different,” to which The Maker agrees. The two adventurers walk all over the island. It isn’t long before they discover a narrow tunnel in the ground that seems to lead downward. Drawing his Enchanted Bow, Tacky takes the lead as they begin descending the tunnel. When they reach the other side, they emerge on one of the narrow cliff “levels” on one side of the island. At Tacky’s suggestion, the two of them turn around and walk back up the tunnel before Tacky can fall off the cliff into The Void. When they emerge onto the top of the island once more, The Maker suggests that they climb an Obsidian Pillar to give them a vantage point that would enable a panoramic view of almost the whole island. At this suggestion, Tacky runs off ahead of The Maker and climbs to the top of a Pillar. He looks around him and fails to see whatever The Maker had unconsciously noticed. When The Maker reaches the top of the Pillar and looks around, however, he quickly spots what he had apparently seen before: a miniature End Stone island floating independently off of the main island, which had not been there during his previous visits to the dimension. The two explorers fly off from the Pillar and eventually land on the tiny island. Tacky turns around to look back at the main island and is suddenly hit from behind, knocking him out. At the same time, The Maker finds himself being dragged back to the main island by an invisible force; his screams for Tacky’s help are not heard.

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Played out in-game on 12/4/2012 and 12/25/2012. Written 12/25/2012.

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Chapter X: Flashes of Silver

Chapter X: Flashes of Silver

When The Maker and Tacky enter the Stronghold, they find that it is very dark. The Maker brandishes his Diamond Sword, and Tacky loads his Bow. It is virtually no time at all before they find a large, sealed door in a large atrium. It seems that a key is required to open this door. The Maker tells Tacky to stay at the large door while he goes off to search for the key, to which Tacky obliges.

The Maker sets off down the corridor, using a button to open an iron door and diving through before it slams shut right behind him. He finds himself face to face with a Zombie, whom he dispatches effortlessly. Walking down more corridors, he encounters few creatures other than the occasional Spider and even a Cave Spider which drops from the ceiling. He eventually finds himself in what seems to be a library. After taking out three Zombies and a Skeleton, The Maker makes his way to the back of the library, where a narrow passageway ends in a Chest. Opening the Chest, The Maker discovers a small, silver key. Removing it from the Chest appears to set off some kind of booby trap because the stone above the Chest breaks suddenly, and water crashes in from above, flooding the library and sending The Maker back to the library door. The Maker traces his steps from earlier and makes his way safely back to Tacky.

Tacky does the honor of inserting the silver key and opening the large door. In the center of the room beyond, a set of stairs leads up to the frame of an End Portal that hovers over a contained pool of lava. At the top of the stairs, there is also a Source of Life for hostile Mobs. The latter sight puts The Maker and Tacky into combat mode, poised for what may jump out at them at any moment. Cautiously, Tacky mounts the stairs and sees that the End Portal frame already has two Eyes of Ender placed into it. Suddenly, The Maker shouts at Tacky to jump down. Tacky looks down at his feet to see a glint of silver as a small, bony, metallic, rat-like insect crawls around his ankles, down the stairs, and into a stone tile, disappearing. Tacky rushes back down to The Maker. The Maker runs up and strikes the Source of Life with his Diamond Sword, but it glances right off. He leaps to the ground just as another of the creatures emerges from the Source of Life. The second shiny insect scurries down and disappears into another tile. The Maker and Tacky watch in horror as a swarm of these Silverfish spawn from their Source of Life, running around the room and burrowing into the stone floor, hiding. Waiting. When the swarm concludes, the two explorers slowly walk up the steps. Before they can reach the top, a wall of fire erupts from the ground on the top step, blocking their path to the End Portal. The Maker swings his sword at the Source of Life, and this time it shatters, destroyed. But their path remains blocked by fire. Tacky flies up and tries to fly over it and around it, but the flames simply reach up higher and around the Portal. The Maker realizes that this is a challenge; they will have to kill all of the Silverfish in order to proceed.

Using extreme caution, the two walk across the stone floor. Startling Tacky, The Maker suddenly lunges at one of the floor tiles, smashing it with his Sword with a loud crash. Tacky moves behind The Maker, Arrow aimed at the ground, understanding what The Maker is doing. The Maker smashes another tile and another. Then he smashes another…and a Silverfish flies out, latching onto The Maker’s leg with its teeth. Tacky fires his Fire-Arrow, and the Silverfish dies, The Maker’s skin scorched by the Arrow’s flame. The two continue smashing tiles, Silverfish occasionally bursting out of them and leaping at the two humans, sometimes two at a time, until most of the original floor is smashed up, and the wall of flame recedes.

Tacky and The Maker walk up the steps until they stand before the End Portal frame. The Maker proceeds to create Eyes of Ender, each of which he places in a different empty slot in the frame. As he places the last one, the Portal bursts into life, a starry abyss appearing in the center of the frame. The two explorers nod to each other, and they step into the Portal together, falling through the dimensions.

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Played out in-game on 12/3/2012. Written 12/4/2012.

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Chapter IX: Guided by the Eyes

Chapter IX: Guided by the Eyes

The Maker and Tacky fly up into the air, heading in the direction that the Eyes of Ender had seemed to be floating up into. Occasionally throwing Eyes out in front of them, they fly over the Nullard Mountains, over the northeastern corner of Mistal Swamp, and over Sekyl Jungle. About two-thirds of the way through Sekyl Jungle, on its western side, they realize that their Eyes are now guiding them in circles, to a single, central point. They fly to this point, and their Eyes begin floating down, through the trees and through the ground. Landing and then digging down at the point provided by the Eyes of Ender, they discover, deep underground, a massive dungeon, a Stronghold.

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Played out in-game on 12/3/2012. Written 12/3/2012.

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Interlude II: Eyes That Foresee The End

~A few weeks have passed~

ARC 4: ENDINGS ARE BEGINNINGS

Interlude II: Eyes That Foresee The End

Tacky returns to Maker’s Grove from his travels, having greatly expanded his map of Faradesia. He also presents The Maker with a souvenir: an Eye of Ender. Tacky informs him that he had, according to his notes, found it laying at the bottom of a shallow pond at coordinates (220,61,-208), in the northeastern Nullard Mountains. The Maker absorbs the Eye, allowing him to create more Eyes using his powers, and insists that they go to the Eyeland, a small island in the Great Ocean, just south of the central Nullard Mountains. They do so, but this visit proves fruitless. In frustration, Tacky tosses an Eye up into the air. To both of their surprise, the Eye continues to float up and forward, surrounded by Ender Aura, seemingly pointing them somewhere, before falling back to the ground. The Maker and Tacky decide to toss it back up and follow the path that subsequent tosses will eventually draw out.

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Backstory; never played out in-game. Written 12/3/2012.

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