RealityCraft
I am kneeling before a being, bathed in brilliant white light, I can feel power flowing from him into me. As I kneel here I think of the events that led up to this moment. I had woken up on saturday morning, I got up and made myself some toast and coffee for breakfast. I turned on the computer after I had finished my breakfast. I was starting to get bored with minecraft single player and none of the mods I have downloaded helped. So I decided to go searching for a server. I looked through the wiki and searched on google but found nothing. Just as I gave up on finding a good enough server something caught my eye. Almost at the end of the google search results, it was some server called Realitycraft. I clicked on it and came to a page. It was blank except for a single line of words "IP- " I copied the the ip and closed down my internet. I opened my minecraft and entered the ip into the direct connect area and hesitated. I didn't know why, it was just another server. Or so I thought. I clicked connect and the game started connecting to the server. A screen flashed up with a message "Welcome to Realitycraft" and a button which said "enter" This was the only thing on screen so I thought it must have been a server mod. I clicked the button. And suddenly I was sitting on a cold stone floor. The strange thing was that it was made of block after block. And so were the wooden walls, but I wasn't. I thought that this must have been a dream so I pinched my arm. Nothing. I tried again and again nothing. I was getting scared now so I stood up and explored the room. I counted the block and found that the room was four blocks high and eight blocks long and eight blocks wide. One wall was made of glass and I could see a green meadow, made completely of blocks, through it. On another wall there was a chest with a sign saying 'equipment'. Another wall was fully covered in paintings depicting creepers and pigs and other minecraft-related images which confirmed my fears, I have been sucked in to minecraft. At school I've heard people talking about stories they heard of people getting sucked into the game, although I never believed them, I was starting to question my certainty of the impossible. I quickly looked at the final wall which had some signs on it. I looked over the signs, they read "Welcome to RealityCraft. This is a server trying to make Minecraft as realistic as possible. We have used a mod called 'sucked into the game' to make this server. This is probably not what you expected of this server but we hope you have a nice time and try to enjoy the reality of the world" There was a button below it with another sign saying "exit" I decided to get some equipment before I do this because I somehow knew that the button will not take me out of the game. I walked over to the chest and opened the top. Inside I found some leather armour, a collection of dyes, a stone pickaxe, axe, shovel, hoe, sword, a stack of torches and some cooked pork chops, and a backpack (which I decided was part of mod). I dyed some armour black, as I liked the colour, and took a set of equipment. I put on the armour and pulled on the backpack with the other items in it (curiously the items shrank when I placed them in it). I then walked over to the wall of signs before taking a deep breath and pushing the button. I found myself on the other side of the wall. I looked back and confirmed it was the same room. I looked around, to my left I find a jungle, to my right is a hot desert, to my back is the ocean and right in front is the meadow that I saw. I decided to get some wood in the jungle before I continued on, so I took out my axe and started chopping a large tree. As I took out a bottom block the entire tree started falling, I quickly jumped out of the way as the tree thumped right where I had been standing. I picked up the wood and placed it in my pack (and again the items shrank). I then started off towards the meadow. After a few minutes I came across a cow, I decided to kill it to get some more food for if I need it. I stabbed it in the head, but instead of disappearing like like it would in normal minecraft it just fell on the ground. This disgusted me and I was about to leave when I decided it was still worth getting the resources. so I skinned the animal and cut of uniform stakes from its flesh. I then cleaned them in a nearby pond and put them in my pack. As I walked away the cow vanished. I walked for a while until I came to a wooden shack. The shack was small, and stank of urine. Just as I was about to open the door to go inside, a felt something against my neck. I instinctively froze, I slowly looked to my left and saw a girl there. It was hard to determine that she was a girl from the heavy pink leather armour she wore and the huge sword she held up against my neck. She had long dark brown hair like mine with sky blue eyes to my brown ones. She looked extremely thin and had long cuts along her arm that were roughly bandaged with leave held together with vines. "Hold it right there" she said in a rough voice "who are you?" "I-Im Jonathan" I replied. "What are you doing here" she asked. "Its a long story" I said. "Ive got time" she said. So I told her the entire story of my looking for a server and winding up here. "Same thing happened to me, me and my brother..." "Wheres your brother?" I asked and immediately saw the tears in her eyes. "He-he's dead... A bunch of skeletons killed him... They were the ones who gave me this cut" "Didn't he just respawn?" I asked. "No I think if you die here thats it, game over you lose." She replied. "Oh..." I was still very conscious of the sword at my neck "um could you possibly lower the sword?" "Oh yeah right sorry" she put the sword in a leather sheet at her waist. "Whats your name?" I asked wiping away the small amount of blood from the cut the sword gave me. "Jenny. But call me Jen" she said as she opened the door to the shack. I followed her in. The inside of the shack was very much like the outside, wood and devoid of any decoration. The only things inside was a crafting table, a bed, and a chest. "Could I use your crafting table?" I asked. "Sure go for it" she replied. I went to work first taking some of the leather I had to make a sheet for my sword, then using the rest to make two water bottles with caps made of wood. "Do you have any food?" Jen asked in a hopeful voice. I opened my pack and gave her the cooked pork I had. She almost cried as she hungrily devoured it, and for the first time I really saw how desperate she was. I could see she was extremely hungry. "Is there a pond or a lake somewhere near here?" I asked. "Sure ill show you" she lead me a bit away from the shack where we found a pond. I filled both bottles I had made with the water and gave one to Jen. When I looked at Jen I could see she was breathing hard although she was trying to hide it. I asked her about it but she said "I'm just a little tired" so we started to walk back to the shack. About half way back she, to my horror, suddenly collapsed. I quickly carried her back to the shack and laid her in the bed. I found that she had a fever so I soaked a rag that I found in the shack with water and put it on her forehead. I slowly fed her some water and pork making sure she doesn't choke. I realised then that its possible that the wound in her arm might be the cause. I slowly undid her bandage work and almost fell over as I saw the brutality of her arm. I was dripping in white puss and the skin around the cut was a puffy red. I decided to try and clean it so I slowly poured a little water on it cleaning away some of the puss, but not all. So I hunted around inside the house for another rag. I found one inside the chest along with small daggers. I took both and went back to Jen. I took the soaked rag from Jen head feeling that it was already warm. I then re-soaked it in water started cleaning the wound off all the puss. As I cleaned I realised just how deep the cut went, a good centimetres. It took a while but finally all of it was gone and I could see the bone. The cut was still oozing blood, so I took the unused rag and cut it into strips. I laid all the strips out along the cut and started turning the vine into individual fibres and then weaving them into a suitable bandage. I then put the improvised bandage on top of the strips of rag and tied them on the back. I hoped that this would hold and that I did a good enough job. It took four whole days for Jen to wake up, which in retrospect wasn't that long at all, in which time I kept feeding her water and pork and regularly bathing her, being careful to keep her undergarments on. When she finally did wake up, she said "how do I look" I gave a light laugh and replied "good just a little pale" "Well what happened? I mean I know I passed out but do you know why?" She asked. I told her about the cut on her arm, which she now felt throbbing, and about how I cleaned it. She listened with interest to my word and when I was finished asked "really? You did that all for me?" "Yeah but its nothing, I was just paying you back for not killing me" I replied with a smile. "No its not nothing, you did a lot, thank you" she then hugged me and after a minute pulled away with a blush. "So..." I said with an equal blush "Ive been thinking, how about we go explore and try and find anyone else. Maybe we can figure out how to get out of this place. But we will wait until your rested enough and healed. What do you say?" "Sure" she answered. We waited a couple of days while Jen healed and rested. During that time we talked about our lives out in the real world. I learned that Jen had a older sister and a brother one year younger than her. Angela and Harry. She lived in new york in a flat. In turn I told her that I was a single child and I lived with my parents on a farm outside Albany, in a small region in new zealand. We eventually decided it was time to leave, we gathered our supplies. Jen had a similar pack to mine but bit was old and worn. She put some of the pork that she had left in her pack as well as some string, the dagger, a bunch of arrows (presumably liberated from some skeletons) and a bow. All I had in my pack was the items I got from the starting area, my water skin and a second dagger that Jen had. When I asked her where she got it, she said that she and Harry had found them laying on the ground near a tree. And we set off. We walked along the direction that I had when I first found her shack because it was as good as any other. We walked for quite awhile until we came to a village that we confirmed was abandoned when we did a quick sweep of the houses. There was one house we didn't dare enter as there was blood on the door. The windows of the house were too thickly coated in blood to see through. We hunted around the village and found a farm. Most of the food was rotten but there was some that was salvageable, we gathered some carrots, potatoes, wheat and some melons. We went to the blacksmith. We crushed the wheat into powder, mixed it with water and kneaded the dough into the shape of a bread. We used the oven in the blacksmiths to bake the dough. I walked into the blacksmiths and, to my surprise, found a set of iron swords. The were probably being made for a paying customer. As I doubted the customer would come to collect the sword I took one and gave the other to Jen. We retrieved our now cooked bread and ate one together. We then set of again. We walked for a few hour and entered a desert. It was blindingly bright, blisteringly hot and bone dry. If it weren't for the leather boots my feet would be blistered. I noticed that Jen was having trouble staying in one spot. I told Jen to sit down so that I can look at her boots. She obediently sat down, I took of her boot and new immediately why she couldn't stand in the same spot for long. In some parts her boots were paper thin and in other parts, like her heel, it was completely worn through. I stripped off her boots and did the same with mine. I put her boots in her pack and made her put on mine. I then took some tags and tied them around my feet. It was uncomfortable but bearable. We continued walking, Jen had a lot easier time. We decided to camp in a cave that we found just as it started turning to night. I gathered some dead bushes and started a fire with some dried sticks, it was easier as the sand was hot and so was the bush. We sat around the fire as the temperature started to drop. I used the fire to cook the meat from the cow I killed as it was starting to go bad. After I finished cooking I gave the last pork, that I had gotten from the starting area, to Jen. She ate it hungrily while I ate the meat I just cooked. I saved some of the meat and gave it to Jen as well as she finished her pork. She accepted it thankfully. Even with the fire it was still getting unbearably cold. "H-Hey J-Jen?" I said through chattering teeth. "Y-Yes?" She answered. "W-Want to s-share each others b-body heat?" I asked. "O-Ok" she said. I crawled closer to her and held her close to me. Her body heat already adding to my own. She wrapped her arm around my chest and we slept like this, wrapped in each others arms. We suddenly awoke to the sound of running feet. It was still dark but we could make out running figures in the night. As they came closer we saw it was a boy and a girl, both no older than 13. They were running away from a horde of giant spiders. The strangest thing was that it was in vivid detail, with its four bulbous eyes, it's long hairy legs, and it's mouth, the teeth like cleavers dripping with saliva from the possibility of fresh food. As I looked at Jen I saw her give me a slight nod. I pulled my sword and ran towards the group. As I ran I saw a blur of a flint tip and a feather, I realised that Jen must have drawn her bow and arrows and had fired. As I sped towards the children I saw their frightened faces flash in alarm, they were scared I was coming to hurt them, and I was past them running in to the group of spiders. I was almost instantly over come. I hacked at them with my sword but soon I was pinned to the ground by multiple arachnid legs. They hacked at my armour, which provided little protection, and slashed into my flesh. Either I was lucky or they didn't want to kill me, either way the cuts only went a few millimetres deep. But there were enough cuts that I was losing blood, and fast. Some time later I lost consciousness. I woke up in our cave, the faces of the frightened children confirmed that it had not been a dream. As I examined my chest, I found it was covered in a clean white bandage that went all around my body. "Oh. Your awake" Jen said as she walked over to me "here. Eat this" she handed me a bowl of what I suspected was mushroom soup, and I ate it ravenously. "How? What happened? I don't remember" I said between mouthfuls of the soup. "Well I saw you go down after you took out about twenty of those things. As soon as I saw that, I grabbed my sword and ran as close as I could. I shot as many of them as I could before I got their attention, and by then there were only about ten left. So I took my sword and hit them as hard and fast as I could, though they did get a few lucky shots" she said showing me the cut along her shin. "Are you ok?" I asked as I tried to get up to examine her wound, but a jolt of pain from my chest sent me crashing right back down with a groan. "Im fine" she said with a worried look "I only got about 6 of the them in the end while the rest ran off, I then dragged you, with the help of these two" she said indication the two kids "in here where I bandaged your chest, you have only been asleep a couple of hours. Its really weird cause I was asleep three day and I only had a little cut on my arm, your chest is more cuts than skin" she finished with a shudder. "So..." I said turning to the two kids "whats your names?" "Alice" said the girl. "Michael" said the boy. "Well Im Jonathan, and this is Jen" I said indicating Jen "so why were you being chased by those spiders?" "We don't know, we were just walking in a forest and were attacked by them" said Michael "thanks for saving us, and sorry that you got hurt" "Its no big deal. I get hurt like this all the time" I said. Alice asked "really?" "No not really" I said with a light laugh bringing on a burst of pain "Well... Lets get going" as I started getting up again I was sent crashing down this time by, not the pain, but by Jen. "No you are going to sit there and let me take care of you. Your not going anywhere until your well rested." She said. "But-" "No buts" she cut me off. "Ok then but as soon as I'm strong enough we are going" I told her "you two can come with us if you want." I said to the Alice and Michael. "Yes please! Thank you" they both said in unison. For the rest of the day Jen forced me to stay in the cot because she said I needed my rest. That entire day I sat there, frustrated, begging Jen to let me at least walk around but she said "No. I will not have you hurting yourself any more" so I reluctantly obeyed. The next day I refused to stay in the cot any longer, so Jen lets me go to try and find some water because we were all getting pretty thirsty. When I told Michael this he gave me a strange little machine thats meant to suck out the water from cacti and his and Alice's canteens. When I asked where he got the machine he said "well we bought it in the city" "What city?" I asked, to which he replied "New Axely" "Can you lead us there?" I asked. "Sure" After that I walked over to the first cactus I could find and cut a hole into the side. I pushed the end of the machine in and turned it on. Almost instantly the water gushed out of a hole in the back of it. I was so taken by the suddenness that I missed all of it before I got the bottles out, by which time the cactus was shrivelled and dead. I went to the next cactus and repeated my process, taking care to place the bottles under the hole before I turned it on. When I filled both Jen and my canteens, I filled the canteens that they had given to me. When I got back I told Jen about the city Michael had told me about, and she also agreed that it will be our next stop "I mean, its the best place to get any answers" she said. So we waited another day for me to heal, and pack our supplies, before we finally started off. On the road through the desert I learnt that Michael and Alice was brother and sister, which I had already guessed since they both had the same red hair and green eyes, and that they live in London with their mother. Their parents are divorced. They said that a friend at school told them about this server. They say they spawned in the same place I did but that there was a flying bus waiting for them and about twenty other people. It took them to New Axely where they had spent the last two weeks until they decided to travel and explore. We finally left the jungle behind and came to a dense green forest. In the leaves I saw apples, so I reached up and grabbed a armful. I stuffed them in my bag and gave one to everyone in our little group. We decided to have a little picnic. As I ate my apple I suddenly noticed a whistling that was coming from the trees. As I looked up I saw a flash of red feathers here, a beak here, and a eye here. "Hey guys... Look at the birds" I told my group. As they looked around more birds started appearing. We marvelled at how they sang, the sweet melodies of birdsongs lulling us into a calm meditative state. And then the birds attacked. The next few minutes was a blur of squawking, flying feathers. I tried hacking at them with my sword but they were too fast. "RUN!" I yelled to my group as I grabbed my pack and ran through the forest. As I broke through the foliage at the edge of the forest I turned around with my sword raised as Jen and the other two raced out after me. The birds were giving hard chase until they suddenly stopped, just within the trees. I waited a few minutes, tensed for their next sudden attack when... A small red bird came limping out. It had a cut on its right wing, the blood was well hidden beneath the red feathers, and one of its claws seemed to be missing a talon. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jen draw her bow. "No. Stop. It looks hurt, we cant just kill it when its defenceless" I say, she nods. I cautiously walk over to it, tensing for the birds next attack. The red bird had collapsed in a heap a few steps from the edge of the trees. I gently gathered it in my arms and walked back towards my friends. We found a nice even area where we made camp. "I hope it doesn't rain" said Alice. "I hope we don't get attacked again" I grumbled. I gently laid the bird down on the grass and got out the last of our cloth. I gleaned the cut on the birds wing and gently bandaged it, making sure to wrap the cloth arounds its little body to stop it moving the wing. I then took a look at its claw and found the middle talon missing, although the blood has stopped. I cleaned and bandaged this as well. We all ate a quick dinner of apples and went to bed, I kept the bird in my arms to keep it warm. I was woken up by something moving in my arms. I look down and saw the bird was awake, I stood up and put it carefully down. I then cut up a bit of apple into small pieces and slowly fed it to the bird. Thankfully it ate the apple without complaint. I then poured some water into my cupped hand and held it at the bird. It slowly started drinking, when it finished I bundled it into my arms. It instantly started to climb onto my shoulder. I went back to the trees, which seem to frighten the bird as it hid its head behind mine. I picked some of the apples from the nearest trees and headed back to my friends. When I got there my companions were already all awake. "Looks like you made a new friend" Jen said with a smile. Alice and Michael both rushed at me to get a good look at the bird, he (i decided to make it a he) seemed to like the attention. "What are you gonna name it?" Alice wondered. "I think I might call him... I don't know... Anyone have any ideas?" I asked. "How about spike?" Supplied Michael, to which the birds squeaked loudly in protest and shook his head. "How about fluffy?" Alice suggested merrily, which received a glare from the bird. "Um... No sorry Alice I don't think that fits" I said, Alice made a pouty face. "Hey! How about we call him Red?" Said Jen, Which earned nods from everyone, including the bird. "Ok then, that settles it. Welcome to our little group Red" I told Red "anyway lets get packed and keep going" It took a few minutes of fumbling, grumbling and tumbling but eventually we were all packed. With Red sitting on my shoulder we walked through a meadow that seemed endless, so we decided to stay in sight of the tree line to our left so that we wouldn't get lost. After five hours of walking the meadow seemed no less endless. I saw some shapes in the distance, they looked like animals. When I pointed them out to Jen, she mumbled something indecipherable but gave no other response, most probably from fatigue. As we for closer i realised the animals were in fact horses, "hey guys, stop i have an idea" i said, and i pointed to the horses "you see those horses? Well what if we made a carriage and used the horses to pull it, we could just sit back and relax while the horses carry us, and we can even get to New Axely faster" "Great idea" everyone said with a smile, "wait... I don't know how to make a carriage... I haven't ever seen one" Jen told us. "We'll thats ok, I have seen one before and i think ill be able to make one" i assured them. We all first got some wood, some leaves for padding, vines for rope and we mined some stone out of a cliff nearby. We first made the wheels with my instructions, then we made a base and attached the wheels to the base with stone nails. We then made a box and secured it to the base, we made seats with leaves sewn together for cushions and then we made the poles out the front of the carriage base. We made harnesses out of leaves and vines for the horses, and finally made a seat for the person driving to sit. We took so long to make it that it was already night, so we decided to sleep in the carriage for the night. It felt like minutes had passed before the sound of something clacking together woke me up. The knocking outside the window of the carriage returned me to full consciousness, Red was already up the others were still asleep good thing I'm a light sleeper I thought glumly. I looked out the window but it was too dark to see anything. I quickly roused the others and, leaving Red in the carriage, we all slowly crept out of the carriage. We still saw nothing as we edged our way around the perimeter of the carriage, and as we reached the end of our search around the carriage I started to relax. I guess all of us did, because we came so close to it before we realised it was there. The skeleton stood there with its back to us, it's ribs looking like long white teeth. It was in vivid detail just like the spiders, it's bones were blood stained and moss covered, there were thin hairline cracks running along it, one of its fingers were missing on one hand and one of its ribs as well. I realised that Jens arrows would be next to useless against this thing, and I was about to tell her this when the skeleton turned. For a full thirty seconds (or somewhere close to that) we stood and watched each other, until it raised its bow and fired. As I dived to the side, I saw Jen had done the same while the Alice and Michael just ducked down. The skeleton ignored us for the moment and went after Alice and Michael, as it raised its bow to fire again I acted impulsively, I ran straight at the thing. When it noticed me it was already too late, it fired the arrow and it slid past me narrowly avoiding my skin, and then I smashed into the skeleton. We went down in a heap and I started wrestling it on the ground, cursing at it the entire time. After a while I became vaguely aware of the others standing over me and looking down at me, all of them barely containing a laugh. I stopped wrestling and looked down at the skeleton, it was only a pile of bones now, and they probably had been since i tackled them. I was the first one to start laughing and the others soon followed. We were still laughing when it happened, I saw the arrow coming across the distance in almost slow motion, I was powerless to stop it as it buried itself in Jen's back, the laugh still on her face as she died. I ran to her hoping she still held on to some thread of life, but I saw nothing. When I looked up I saw the army of skeletons all raising their bows to fire again. "Get in the carriage, take Jen with you" I told the kids. "What?! No. We ca-" "do it" I cut them off softly. Once I was sure they were all inside I turned back to the skeletons. "Which one of you shot that arrow?" I asked. After a moment, I saw a skeleton step forward from the rest "we'll ok then" I said. I ran straight at it, dodging its first arrow, parrying its second with my sword, then I was right next to it, I cut through its spinal cord with my sword and all its bones fell in a heap. The other skeletons stood there in something like a stunned silence, then they all attacked. I weaves in and out between the skeletons, dodged and parried their arrows, I got cuts all over myself. As I moved through the skeletons, cutting them up as I go, I realised that I was screaming, a yell that was something between a war cry, a exclamation of pain, and a sob of despair. After sometime I reached the end of the ring of skeletons and looked around for my next target, but there were none, all of them were gone. Breathing heavily from the fight, and something more, I slowly made my way towards the carriage when I heard the clacking. I looked around for the the skeleton but couldn't see it, then I looked at the pile of bones. The pile of bones I wrestled with first were slowly pulling together, as we're all the other piles. I knew I couldn't fight them anymore, so I lassoed the two nearest horses I could find, tied them to the carriage and we sped off just as the first skeleton fired its arrow, which thumped heavily into the back of the carriage. For the next few hours I sat on the carriage, rushing through the country side, into a forest, the branches cutting my face, and me not caring. I felt dead inside. After a while I became aware of an entity next to me, "she's gone" Michael said "she just disappeared" I said nothing. After another while he spoke again "we need to stop and eat, you can't keep going like this" I pulled over to the side of a road I hadn't realised we've been riding on. That's when i noticed the tears on my cheeks, I quickly wiped them off and got down from the carriage, Michael quickly followed and Alice climbed out the back. We had a picnic that resembled a funeral, and when Alice tried to attend to my cuts I waved her away. After the picnic we got back to riding. After a while we reached New Axely, by then I as many cuts from branches as I did from the skeletons arrows. The city was more like a town, instead of soaring towers there were more like shacks, there was one tower that soared high into the sky, it was on a hill overlooking the town. As we drove through the main gate I saw passers by staring at me, so I ignored them. We parked in the main square, next to the local hotel and across from the hospital. I told Alice and Michael to go get a room while I go to the hospital, they tiredly agreed and I walked across the street and into the hospital. I went to the reception desk and said " um excuse me? I would like to check myself into the hospital" "right away sir" she answered. "Thank you" I said, then I collapsed, I was unconscious before I hit the ground. When I woke up I was lying in a hospital bed, in brand new clothes, and with no injuries, not even a scar. I checked myself out of the hospital and walked across the street to the hotel. I asked The hotel manager my room number, i assumed the kids told him I was coming, and headed to the room he told me. As I walked in, they stopped talking and just sat there staring at me, Red was on a coat hanger near the door. "I'm going to bed" I told them as I hurried to a room. I spent the next four days sulking in my room, only coming out to eat or drink, at the end of the four days I finally came out. "I'm going to town" I told Alice and Michael, for their part they didn't object. I walked though the stalls, along with Red who was looking as happy as ever, looking at everything I saw but buying nothing, there was food, tools, clothes, jewellery, spices, mechanical parts, and weapons. As I passed one stall, I was stopped short, there in a display case was the most beautiful sword I've ever seen, it was tinted red with slivers or orange stretching its length. The store owner saw my interest and came over "that's the Dragons Blade, said to have been forged by the very owner himself, containing the blood of the dragons, made of the steel of a red giants core, embezzling the hilt is supposed to be the white ruby made from the dust of a phenix's rebirth, it is a blade that is surrounded by power, it is said that whoever is slain by this blade is instantly banned, it can't be countered. You would love to have it wouldn't you?" "Yeah but I could never afford it" I told him "we can work something out" the man said, I look at him closely and saw pain in his eyes "you seem like a warrior, maybe not the most trained, but a warrior nonetheless, I want you to get my wife back. You will need to train with the master swordsman first but I need you to do it, if you do you may keep the sword" "I-I-I don't know what to say... What happened to your wife?" I asked. "She was killed in a mining accident a week ago" he replied "but sir, your wife is dead. How am I supposed to get her back? I can't bring back the dead, and if you die here you don't respawn so how am I supposed to get her back?" I asked baffled. "What? You do respawn, Lord Pain keeps them in his castle, makes them dig for him, fight for him, he even conducts experiments on them. I want you to go and break into his castle and rescue my wife, her name is Isabel" he responded. I thought over this for a moment, this could be my chance to get Jen back, she might still be alive, "what do you think Red?" And as if in answer Red chirped. "Ok sir, I'll do it but first tell me where I can find the master swordsman, and also who is Lord Pain?" "Lord Pain is an admin, he used to be one of many but now he is the only one on. Many have speculated that he got rid of all the other admins, we don't know how, possibly he banned them. No one knows what happened to the owner, personally I think that Lord Pain has found a way to contain his power. He lives in the Castle of Pain, it is said that the castle can be found in all three dimensions, and possibly more, it is a place that all dimensions meet. It can be found in the plains of Pain, about five days ride from here. You can find the sword master at the training tower. Good luck" I left the store with my newly acquired sword. I felt it hum slightly I my hand, though I dismissed it as my imagination. Red took an interest with the sword, eventually though he lost his interest and just went about pecking at the air. I walked to the training tower the store owner told me about, I found a gleaming reception room with what looked like an elevator on one wall. The floor was red marble, the walls birch wood, in the middle of the room stood a circular reception desk with three people sitting inside working on computers. I guesses the elevator, the chairs and the computers were plugins that were in the server as well, I decided to stop deciding what was a plugin and what was not. I went over to the first receptionist "um excuse me?" I said "yes, how can I help you?" She said, "um, I wanted to speak with the Master swordsman" I replied, she stopped typing "he-he's not seeing anyone at the moment, would you like to leave a message?" "No I want to talk to the Master swordsman" I replied. "Might I ask why?" She asked, "Ok, I want him to train me, I'm going to go after Lord Pain" all three receptionists stopped typing "uh-uh-uh... Ill... See what I can do" she said as she hurried to a phone on one wall. After a minute she came back "he will see you" she gestured to the elevator "go to the top floor, he's waiting there" "thanks" I replied. I walked over to the elevator, climbed inside and looked at the number pad on the wall. The numbers went in one straight line from bottom to top. The bottom number was a 'G' that stood for ground floor, the other numbers went from one to seven. I pushed the button with the seven on it. I elevator doors slid closed and the elevator moved with a jerk, guess they don't have all the mechanics right I thought to myself. After a few seconds the elevator stopped, the doors slid open and revealed a large circular room, with some rooms leading off from it. The floor was made of circles of different colours. The middle colour being red and the outer colour being black. In the centre of the red circle stood a middle aged man, he was fit and athletic, he had brown hear and eyes, tanned skin that had muscles rippling beneath, he wore a dark robe and had a sword in a worn leather sheath. "We'll so this is the kid that's going to go up against a god" he said "um... Yeah?" I said uncertainly "Well lets see if you've got what it takes for me to train you" he pulled out his sword, the blade was pitch black and had a gem in the middle of the cross guard, the gem was also black "this blade is called midnight, the name comes from both its colour and that it was completed at midnight, this gem enhances the blade for one hour after midnight. If I train you, you will come to hate this blade" he said. He raised the sword above his head and ran at me with a yell. I barely had time to draw my sword before he brought the blade down onto it, almost making me drop it, Red screeched in surprise and flew a bit above us. "Good reflexes, although it would have been better for you to just step to the side but I guess I can fix that, now your technique on the other hand is horrible. Your legs are too close together, your elbows are pointing the wrong ways, your back is slumped, your gripping the blade too tightly and your hands are too close together, there are a million other faults but its just too tiring to name them all" he commented, he noticed the Dragons Blade "where did you get that blade?" "I um, I got it from a store owner, he gave it to me" I answered "curios, very curios. Say do you know the story of this blade?" He asked as he lowered his sword "yeah, he said the owner had made it from the steel at a red giants core and it has dragon blood and the white ruby is made from the dust of a phenix's rebirth. That's what the store guy told me" I answered "no I mean do you know what this sword has done? Who it has slain?" He asked. "Um no. Could you enlighten me?" "Very well, this sword was used by the owner in the hacker war, a Hacker has come on to the server, no one knows who he was, or how he managed to hack this server but he did. We all called just called him The Hacker, anyway he couldn't be banned by conventional means, and he couldn't be stopped by jailing or kicking or anything. So the owner had the idea to make this blade, he didn't know if it would work but he made it, he challenged the hacker to a fight and battled the hacker, the hacker threw everything he had at the owner, wounding him and draining most of his power but finally the owner won, banishing the hacker, but it is said that the hacker wasn't fully banished, that he sent a part of his character into a deep dark whole so that he can grow strong again, but that's only paranoia. Placed a command on the sword, that it should find the person worthy it. Now you have it which suggests it might be you, or the legends are false and you got the sword out of pure luck, anyway put your sword away and take your bird to that little cage over there" he said gesturing to a cage without two of its walls. "O...k..." I said carefully, I sheathed my sword and carried Red over to the cage, onto which he happily climbed, and walked back over to the Master Swordsman. "My name is Lancelot shadows, but my first rule is, whenever talking to me, you shall refer to me as Master Lancelot understood?" And when I nodded he said "good, and what name shall I call you?" "My name... Is Jonathan" I replied, "Jonathan... Ok then, come with me" he led the way to one wall which was decorated with an assortment of weapons, ranging from swords to revolvers. He unhooked a pair of wooden swords, both blunted, and tossed one to me "get into your fighting stance" when I complied he made a tisk tisk sound "all wrong, spread your feet more apart. Straighten up. Loosen your grip on the handle. Come on quickly, I don't have all day" I groaned "now come, let's have a sparring match, attack me" he said as he settled into a strange stance. I hesitated a moment, unsure if he was serious, then I lunged at him, not aiming to hurt him. Unfortunately he was aiming to hurt me, he batted my stab away easily and countered by slamming the flat of his wooden blade against my head, then he kicked me over to fall on my ass. "Is that you you've got?" He asked "I really expected more. I'm curios, why are you doing this anyway? I mean, I know your not doing it for the glory, your not the type of person. And I know your not doing it for the fun of it, your not petty enough for that. So it must be for a girl, am I right?" In response I growled as I got up "oh it is. So, come on who is she? A girlfriend? A sister? A mother? Who?" "She's just a friend" I responded. "A friend? Huh, we'll either way, I don't think you can do it. Your too weak" he said jabbing at my chest with his finger "too scrawny" another jab "too much of a failure" another jab "too cowardly" another "I don't even think you want to get her back" as he was about to jab me again, I gave an almighty roar and attacked. He jerked back in surprise and barely had enough time to block the overhead swipe that came at him, he scrambled away from the jab that followed but couldn't block the swipe that came at his ribs. Overcoming his initial sense of shock, Lancelot went on the offensive, he jabbed at my ribs but I spun away from it and tried a stab of my own, he parried it and returned with a swipe at my head but, as I went to block it, I realised too late that it was a feint. My legs were swept out from under me and yet again I was on the ground. "My my, looks like you could be worth training after all. Come back tomorrow, six am, and then well start your training" he turned and walked into one of the adjoining rooms. I sat there for a few moments before standing up, I went over and picked up Red, who chirped happily. I looked at the doorway where Lancelot disappeared through, wondering what did I just get myself into?, and walked into the elevator. When I got to the bottom floor I walked over to the door, and as I passed the receptionist I had talked to said "see you tomorrow" I stared at her in surprise "uhhh... See you tomorrow..." I said, before walking away. I made my way back to my hotel, after a couple of wrong turns, and found that the kids weren't there, probably in town I thought to myself. I spent the next half hour taking Lancelot's advice and perfecting my stance. An hour later the kids walked in the door. "Hi" I said "hi" the both replied "are you ok?" "Actually, I am..." And I told them the story, beginning with my conversation with the store owner. When I finished we all just sat there in silence, "wow" Michael said "so she's still alive? Somewhere in Lord Pain's castle?" Asked Alice, "yeah" I answered. "Well ok then, we'll all train, you can train with Lancelot and Alice and me will go train ourselves" stated Michael "It's as good a plan as any" I replied. The next day we all split up, I went back to my tower and Michael said he was going to the mechanics show and Alice said she was going to the magic shop, when I asked them why they were going to those places they answered, "I'm really good at mechanics and building stuff" answered Michael "I like magic" answered Alice. As I made my way over to the training tower I wondered what Lancelot would make me do today, it might be how to swing a blade I thought to myself, little did I know how wrong I was. I to the tower and was greeted by the same receptionist from the day before, I took the elevator to the top floor where Lancelot was waiting for me with a cup of tea in his hand, next to him on the floor was a box, the lid was closed so I couldn't see what it was. I put Red into his cage, he had come to live on my shoulder, "Morning" I said "your late" he said, I hesitated, I looked at the clock on the wall above the elevator and it showed that I was a minute late, as I opened my mouth to tell him that he interrupted me "no matter how late you are, your still late. Next time be sure that your here early" "yes Lancelot" I grumbled "what was that? Did I hear you call me Lancelot? It's Master Lancelot to you" he said angrily. "Now come put this on" he said holding a blindfold "what? Why?" I asked, he just replied "just do it" I obediently put it on, and after a second something smacked into my head "OW!" I yelled "what was that for!?" "Now come on, if you cannot catch a wooden sword when blindfolded how can you hope to block my attack while blindfolded, now come, pick up your sword" "what? No, I'm not going to pick up that block of wood just so you can hit me repeatedly"I yelled "Suit yourself" he replied and I felt a smack go to my stomach and then another a second later taking my legs from underneath me, I was on the floor again. "If you spend so much time on the floor i might just have to get you to start cleaning it. "Now pick up you block of wood and get into your ready stance" and when I complied "now the best way to start your training gave me much to think about, should I teach you techniques? No you learn better by doing I could see so what then? Perhaps pit you against opponent after opponent and see how you do? But no thats not going to teach you anything" he continued, he was circling me judging from where his voice was coming. He continued talking "so I thought. To myself, what can I do that will teach him? What will challenge him? Well probably anything that involves using his brain but still, how can I make him better? Make him learn? And I came by the answer. So I decided to blindfold you and teach you like that, because if you can learn to fight blindfolded, then you can Learn to fight without one. So today I'm going to teach you how to block, without eyes, are you ready?" "As ready as ill ever be... Master" i muttered. "We'll ok then" I heard him say, a second before his sword smashed into my back, then my feet were taken out from under me again. I got up slowly again, both from the pain and from my weariness, When my feet were securely under me they were taken out from under me again and, yet again, I landed on the floor. "This is going to be a long day" I muttered. The rest of the day went similarly, as did the week, always resulting with me landing hard on the floor. A total of three times i blocked his attack, two time were by complete accident when my sword was at the right place at the right time, while the third time I had blocked it was because I had learnt to listen for the slight whistling that accompanied the swing of the blade. The day after this happened I blocked all but three of his attacks, which was a massive boost to my self esteem. After that Lancelot sent me home early, when I asked why he said that he had things to think about and things to do. The week I had been training I had hardly seen the kids because whenever I was fast asleep from the exhaustion caused by my training. When I saw the kids that evening I asked them what they had been doing while I had been training, Michael said that he had been working with the mechanical engineer for the city and that he had been taught by him in the art of mechanics, Michael said that the mechanical engineer said that he had a knack for mechanics. Alice said that she had been working with the grand Mage of the city, she had been learning about potions and spells and all kinds of fun things. The next day I went for my training Lancelot told me to put on the blindfold again, and then he said "now that you have shown an advance in blocking I decided to continue your training and take it to the next level. So I decided that we will have a sparring match, while your blindfolded. Now attack me" I knew better than to argue, so I did just that, I attacked. My swing came down onto nothing but tun air, but his strike landed painfully on my ribs, winding me, I managed to retreat a couple of paces before he took my legs out from under me yet again and for the hundredth time the week I landed on my ass. I stood up again and stood still for a couple of minutes. I listened for him, I saw the room in my minds eye and used my ears to tell me where everything is. Thats when I heard the soft scrape of shoes on hard wood floors slightly to my right, I lunged for that spot and saw him move to the left to avoid it with my ears, I changed the direction of my blade and was rewarded with the pain filled 'oof' Lancelot made. I was too distracted by my triumph that I didn't hear his blade whistling towards my legs before I landed on the floor "never think your opponent is done until he is on the floor without a head, and sometimes not even then" I heard him say "now lets continue, you will balance a glass on your head and you will make sure it doesn't break, if it breaks your paying for a new one. And take the stupid blindfold off" I stood up and took off the blindfold, I took the glass Lancelot offered me and placed it on my head, it leaned to the side precariously. Lancelot started his attack, I blocked three attacks before one caught me in the ribs, making the glass fall and shatter on the floor. "We'll I could have predicted that" Lancelot said "you owe me a glass" "yeah sorry Master" I replied "no need to be sorry just pay me, I guess I'll get the glass for the next try" and with that he waved his and and the glass pieces pulled themselves together and reformed into the glass, as of nothing had ever happened, then he held out his and and the glass shot into it. "Wow! That's amazing how did you do that?" I asked excitedly, "Hmm? Oh right it's a form of magic, used for fighting, although it can be used for other things as well" he answered "that's so cool! Can you teach me?" I asked hopefully. "Uh... No I don't think so, besides I don't have time to teach you, if you want to learn find someone else" but after a full minute of my pleading he conceded "although I suppose I could teach you how to repair things... Just so I won't have to fix the glass every time you break it" "yay!" I squeaked in joy. Lancelot too a stick and snapped it in half, he placed it in my palm "ok what I need you to do is close your eyes and focus on the stick, don't think about the magic just feel it as you feel any other muscle, feel it and then use it to pull the stick pieces together" I closed my eyes, feeling for my magic, after a minute I found it, I grabbed onto it and used to pull the stick back together, it was hard, took a lot of concentration, and was slightly painful. I saw the sticks pull together, "that was fast, I didn't think you would be able to do it, oh well lets continue" Lancelot said as he handed me the glass again, it took two day for me to keep the glass from falling either from the blows Lancelot landed or my attempts to block them. By that time I had cut my feet multiple times from stepping on the glass, and Lancelot would either healthy wounds with some more battle magic or he would hand me a small rock that I need to soak in water and let the water drip from the rock onto the cuts, either method took the cuts away without even leaving a scar. After we finished with the glass, Lancelot told me to go home and practice, he also said that I should take every Sunday off as well, and rest for a few days and when I asked him why I couldn't practice with him he said "well if you always practice with me, you'll never become independent" and I replied "oh. Ok we'll I understand that but there is one thing I don't understand master, why don't you ever teach me fighting techniques." "Well you must find your own technique, but you must remember a few things when finding it, you must keep your balance, have a firm grip on your sword, and above all else, don't hold the business end of the sword" I practiced on my own for the next few days, with my actual sword, I went to the lumber yard and waited to see the owner. He was a plump man, his crisscross patterned shirt bulging out wards. He had scruffy brown hair, brown eyes, his arms were muscled despite his plump stomach. His voice was something between rolling gravel and sandpaper. I asked him if I could use his lumber yard to train and when he asked me what I was training for I said "Lord Pain" after that he hastily agreed. I set up a large log, I took out the Dragons Blade and sliced right through the log, the two halves of the logs fell to the ground. The newly expose insides of the logs were charred, smoke was rising from them, Red watched my curiously from the log he was sitting on. "Huh, that's interesting" I said to him "I wonder if it work on metal" I went over to a metal pipe left over from construction, I placed it onto two blocks of concrete and stood over it. I brought my sword down onto it. The blade bounced off, the impact jarring my arm "well it doesn't work on metal" The rest of my solo training I decided to use the sword me and Jen had found. I chopped into the next log I had set up, by the end of my few days solo training the logged was reduced to half it's original mass. During my time away from training with Lancelot, I had come to know the people in the town, there was Andrew, the store owner who gave me my sword, Lucy, the local witch as it were, she had a small shop on the outskirts of town, who taught Alice about magic, there was Jack, the mechanical engineer who taught Michael, but most people called him Volts, and Trudy, the food merchant. There was also George, Cecelia, Betty, Calum, Lee and Arnold who owned and operated assorted shops around the square. On the last day of my days free I went to see Lucy, when I got there Alice was just starting her training session. "Oh... I can come back another time if you want" I said "no, no, you can stay, it'll do Alice some good to have an audience" Lucy assured me. So I stayed and watched, on a table before Alice were four stone bowls, one bowl was filled with water, another with small rocks, another was filled with charcoal, and the final one was filled with nothing. Alice closed her eyes, her eyes were closed for so long I was about to ask if she was asleep when the bowl with the charcoal bust alight, I jerked back in surprise. The water from the first bowl started to rise up is a thin stream, slowly thickening, while the rocks from the second bowl started to float up as well and in the bowl filled with nothing a tiny tornado started forming. The water flew up and joined up end to end to form a ring, no bigger than my outstretched hand, the rocks flew to join the ring, forming into its own ring, and attacked perpendicularly to the water ring. The fire rose up as well and did the same as its predecessors and so did the tiny tornado. The entire thing was made of four rings, it was spinning slowly. The light from the fire shining though the water and being blocked occasionally by the rocks, was casting flickering shadows around the room. After a moment the four rings separated and started to flow into the bowls where they came from, the went out, the rocks settled, the tornado slowly stopped, and the water was still. When Alice opened her eyes I said "wow, that was amazing Alice" "thanks" she beamed "she is an exceptional student" Lucy said "but she still has much to learn, I've been teaching her the basics of elemental magic but I think she's ready for some more advanced teachings" Alice beamed again. "So what did you come here about Jonathan?" Lucy asked "I was hoping you could teach me some... Well fighting magic, like the type Lancelot does" after a moment of thought she said "Hmmm that sounds interesting, do you have any times that you could come here?" "Yeah Lancelot gave me Sundays off too" i replied "well that settles it, come here every Sunday and ill teach you fighting magic" "thank you" I left her shop with a smile on my face, I told Alice to come to the be at the hotel at seven. I decided to pay a visit to Michael, just to see what they were doing. I walked over to the old factory that they worked in, right before I touched the door handle there was a loud explosion. I burst into the factory expecting everyone to be l lying under a pile of debris, instead I found Volts and Michael behind a plate of glass and a blackened circle in front of the plate. "Oh... Hi Jonathan" said Volts "we were just conducting an experiment with an explosives droid" "oh, ok well I was just coming over to see what you two were up to" I said "sure come with us, no wait, I'll let Michael show you what we've been up to" he motioned for Michael to lead on, Michael made his way towards a table laden with an assortment of mechanical objects. He held up a sphere about the size of my fist "this is a burrower, what you do is you roll it over to a door or a wall and it will burrow a hole big enough to crawl through" he put the sphere away and help up a glove that had white pads on the fingertips and had wires running down to the palm "this is my own invention, I call its hacker glove, you place it against a control lad and it hacks into it and allows you access to all it functions" he then held up a glass pad and a tube filled with small metal balls "this is my favourite one, its the mapper, the little balls are small transmitters and receivers, you throw them into any building and they map out everything they pass onto this pad" heathen picked up what looked like a gun "this is a grappling gun, though that's not all it does, it also shoots out detonation balls that are covered in slime that sticks to whatever it hits" he then picked up the last item, a metallic mouse "this is my little pets, Volts said I could make as many as I want and keep them, the are battle bots, one bot has enough bite strength to bite through stainless steel. This specific one it the commander, it is imprinted with a very sophisticated AI and it makes it as intelligent as you or me. I call him Alexander" as he held it, the mouses eyes looked at me, I jumped back in surprise which cause Volts to burst out laughing, even Michael gave a smile. "That's very funny, I'd like to see you face an army of skeletons and laugh" I said, that shut them up "anyway it's really cool, thanks for showing me, oh and Michael? Be at the hotel at seven" "ok ill be there" he said as I left. The rest of the day I spent walking around town, looking at memorials, inspecting items in shops, once I caught a glimpse of the cemetery, I hurried in the opposite direction. When seven came I was already at the hotel, the kids came I laughing "what's so funny?" I asked "just a joke Michael told me" Alice said "well ok then, come on sit down, we're going to have a nice dinner" I told them, they both sat. I placed a jug of water on the table, gave everyone glasses, put plates in front of everyone and placed multiple dishes of food around the table, the dishes ranging from peas to a big leg of ham, I sat down as well. "Ok so, dig in" I told them "oh and Alice, please pass the water" "sure" she said "wait, it's not cold, here let me fix that" the sides of the jugs started accumulating drops of water "that's just showing off Alice" Michael said, "you think that's showing off? Well watch this" Alice replied as a stream of water rose up and floated into all three of our glasses, Michael looked impressed "ok fine that was cool, but now it's my turn" he took out his mouse and whispered something to it, suddenly ten mice crawled out of his backpack, flowed onto the table and each took one dish and served an equal serving to everyone leaving only the ham. "That's really cool" Alice conceded, both looked at me. "What?" I asked "nothing it's just..." Alice drifted off "it's just that we showed what we can do, and now it's your turn" Michael finished. "Oh, we'll I don't have elemental magic, and I don't have mechanical mice that will do whatever I want, so I don't know what to show you" I told them, "no wait, I can show you something, here take this plate and throw it at me" I said, gave Michael a plate and put on a blindfold made of my napkin. I turned my back and after a moment I heard the plate whistling through the air, I caught it as it passed. "That was... Cool I guess" Michael said, "what? Not amazing enough for you? Well fine then take the plate back" I said, I threw the plate against the wall where it shattered and fell to the floor "what did you do that for?!" Alice yelled, I held up one hand to silence her, then held up my other hand towards the plate, I used the magic within me and pulled the plate back together. "WOW" both kids squealed in delight as I replaced the plate, I took a little bow "now who wants a slice of ham?" Both kids raised there hands. I took out a small knife, lined it up with the pork, cut it into slices faster than the eye could follow and served it just as fast. "Ok that was just showing off" Alice said, to which I grinned. After a dinner where the three of us talked easily, we sat in front of the fire place for a while before going to bed. In the morning I walked back over to the training tower, greeted the receptionist, whose name I later found out was Margaret, and made my way to the top floor. After I placed Red on his little tree, a recent installation specifically for him, Lancelot started speaking "ok now today we are going to start with something different" he handed me a set of throwing knives. He led the way into the elevator and onto the floor below them, which turned out to be a model of a city street. "Now what you will do is make your way around this street, taking out targets as you go, we will move on when you've gotten every target in this course. Oh and they will be firing back, if you get hit, you start over, each paint ball has a sensor that sends a signal if it come in contact with the suit you will be wearing" he gestured to a big box with a glass wall set high up on one wall, overlooking the street "I'm going to be up there keeping track of your progress, I'll start each round and if you fail I'll tell you. Now put on this suit, slip your knives into the slots, and get ready" I put on a black suit, it was made up of a jacked that zipped up and long pants, all of it black. I slipped the knives into the holders and stood at the beginning of the street. I heard Lancelot's voice sound from a speaker on my shoulder "ready?" "Yeah" I replied "ok here we go, I'm starting the round" he informed me. A target in the shape of a man sprang up to my right, half a second later I felt an impact on my hip, the tip of my knife impaled itself into the doorway where the target was, my upper right leg was a fluorescent yellow. "Well, that was horrible, this will probably take a while. Ok now pick up a new knife from the wall and get ready again" he told me, I groaned in response. There were a total of twelve targets, I had eleven knives to use, when I asked Lancelot about it he said "there is a way to beat this challenge, there are a few actually, you need to find your own way" this confused me even more. The targets moved around a lot, different ones came up on different times, and they regularly changed weapons one round a target would have a machine gun, the next it would have a sniper rifle. That sunday i was awaiting with nervous energy, i walked to Lucy's store, she was waiting for me. "Ok now sit in the chair" she said gesturing to the chair in the middle of the room "the first thing I'm going to teach you, and the most useful, is healing. I'm going to cut you, and what I want is for you to heal the cut, every time you finish healing I'm going to cut you again, until your too exhausted to heal yourself again, you will know you have mastered this when you don't get tired" and at my nervous face she assured me "don't worry, there will be no permanent damage" she held out her hand, I placed my palm into it. She slid a small knife out of her pocket and drew it across my palm, I yelped in pain "now now, its alright, close your eye, find the magic within you and use it to pull your skin back together" I did as she told me, my skin started to close. She cut me over and over again, after about a hundred cuts I couldn't close it again, she closed it for me instead and gave me what looks like a small mint "here suck on this" "what is it?" I asked popping it into my mouth "it's an energy stone, as your saliva works away at it, breaking it down, it releases massive amounts of energy that replenish you magic supplies and give you more energy" she explained "so it's basically really strong coffee in the form of a mint" I suggested, she burst out laughing "yeah I guess you could think of it like that" "Now, what I'm going to teach you now is a way to knock your enemies back, it's a usage of elemental magic involving air, that was adapted to being a fighting magic. What you do is you grab onto the air around you and and use it to push objects away, alternatively it can be used to pull objects closer, also a more advanced version of this is to grab the object itself, this is much more effective but is also more draining" she told me "now what I want you to do is stand over against the wall and push the chair over" i stood against the wall as she told me, grabbed onto my magic, and pushed the chair with the air, the chair only gave a small tremor. "Oh that's fine just keep practising, you'll get it" she assured me, I spent the rest of our lesson trying to push the chair over, by the time I managed it, it was already dark, so I went home. It took me a month and a half to finally overcome the paintball challenge, during that time Lucy taught me how to pull my weapon back into my hand, how to use magic to stun an enemy, how to make her tea (I don't think this was part of my training at all) and a few more little tricks that come handy in a fight. One morning I woke up early, I was covered in bruises from the previous days run, I soaked my healing rock in water, then I let the water drip onto my bruises which instantly started to fade, I repeated this process about thirteen times by which point most of my bruises were gone or fading. I walked to the tower, went to the second to last floor, placed red on his little tree, I had brought it down, put on my gear and waited. Lancelot walked in a few minutes later, slurping a bowl of noodles, and paused, "your early, well that's good" he said "I'll start the round" he hurried up to his box, a second later I heard him speak from my shoulder "ready" The first target sprang up from behind a bush to my left, my knife thudded into its head before it could even fire it's shot at me, the next two targets appeared on the third and fourth floor windows of a building to my left, the first one I took out before he could fire his rifle at me, the target hit the ground, the second took me a second longer, he had enough time to fire his machine gun before my knife thudded into its shoulder and it fell over. The fourth target sprang from a window in a house, firing at me with a pistol, my knife knocked it over with a hit to the stomach, the next seven sprang up in assorted areas around the street, before being taken out in a similar manner to their predecessors. The final target sprang put from behind a lamp post all the way at the start of the street, I had no knives left, I couldn't run to it in time, and it had a machine gun that was a second away from firing, so I did the one thing that I could, I grabbed onto the air around me and knocked the target over. There was silence for a moment and then Lancelot's voice sounded through the speaker on my shoulder "well, that was unexpected" We made our way back to the to floor, after I took off the suit, I carried Red with me. When I put Red down onto his little tree, Lancelot spoke "so Lucy has been teaching you magic?" "Yeah" I answered "we'll ok then, saves me the trouble of finding someone, now today we are going to be going into the second to last stage of your training, your going to fight me" he told me, after my initial bafflement of what he said I replied "But I already have, remember? I was blindfolded" "ah your right, but you haven't fought me when NOT blindfolded" he answered, I was still confused but decided not to question him. We both got into our ready stances, "oh and one other thing, you also haven't fought me when I wasn't holding back" before he even finished speaking his wooden sword smacked into my ribs, I back-pedalled away, but Lancelot followed, I frantically blocked his attacks but the majority of them got through "come on Jonathan, your better than this, running away, if your even going to try and beat Lord Pain your going to have to beat me first" he told me as he effortlessly slapped away a desperate swipe, he returned with a swipe that took my legs from under me, and yet again I landed on the floor. This cycle continued for the rest of the day, and for many days afterwards, for months I would come in, fight with Lancelot, land on my ass multiple times, and leave with more bruises than skin. I slowly started to notice a change, the amount of attacks I block increased, the amount of attacks he blocked decreased, the amount of times I fell on my ass decreased, and the time between me falling on my ass decreased. One day, during our second round of sparring, I blocked all his swipes, and dodged all his stabs. I got in close under his defence, hooked my right foot around his left and shoved him back. He tripped over my foot, and fell flat on the floor, I put my sword to his neck and said "do you concede?" Lancelot stared at me for a second, then started laughing, clapping and said "Bravo! Bravo! Congratulations my boy, you have finally bested me" he stood up, still smiling "There may still be hope for you yet, now that you have beat your latest challenge it is time for your last one. Come follow me" he led the way back to the street replica "now your final challenge will be to beat me while working your way through the street. Once you do that you will be ready to face Lord Pain. Well maybe not ready, but at least you'll have your training with me done. Now put on your suit, and get ready, ill be right back" he hurried away as I put my suit back on, selected my eleven knives, a moment later he appeared at the end of the street, we walked towards each other, a target appeared in the window to my right, I sent a knife to thud into without even taking my eyes off of Lancelot. I kicked the target over that appeared from under a manhole cover, two steps later I blocked an swipe at my ribs by Lancelot, I returned with a jab at his side but he side stepped it, he feinted a swipe at my knees and went for my head, I ducked under it and blocked a paint ball with my sword, I threw a knife at its origin and knocked over another target, at the same time I tried a slice at Lancelot's head, he blocked it and i jumped over the swipe at my legs, threw a knife at a target that appeared from behind a bench to my right and slashed down at Lancelot, he dived out of the way and tried getting under my guard, I hopped back and threw a knife at the target that appeared in the middle of the road behind me. I was pushed back by Lancelot's ferocious onslaught, I ducked under another swipe at my head and threw a knife at each of the two targets that appeared on the roof to my left. I flipped over the slash that came to my belly (Lancelot taught me to do flips in one of our earlier lessons) and returned with a slash of my own. Lancelot blocked it and spun away, I threw a knife at a target that appeared inside of a doorway to my right and we both hopped backwards a short distance. We stared at each other, breathing hard, and waited for the other one to make the next move, a target sprang up from behind a street lamp to my right and in the time that it took me to send a knife at it, Lancelot closed the distance between us, I barely blocked the swipe that came at my head, both from its speed and its power, I stabbed at his middle but he pulled away, the tip of my sword barely missing him, he batted my sword away and swiped down at me, his sword hit the ground where I had been standing as I slid between his legs, throwing a knife at a target that sprang from behind a tree. I jumped up and swiped downwards at Lancelot's head, he blocked it and I kicked his legs out from beneath him, he hit the ground hard and rolled onto his back, my sword came to his neck. "Do you yield?" I asked, a target sprang up three feet from us, I ran up to it and stabbed my knife through it. I walked back over to Lancelot and helped him up, "Well congratulations, you have completed your training, you may go to Lord Pains castle now and stand a chance, you should leave Sunday, three days from now." He told me "But before you go, come to me, I would like to give you a few things for your journey, also I would like to meet these two companions of yours" "I will master" I assured him, "no need to call me master anymore Jonathan, I am no longer your trainer, but I do hope we have become friends" he stuck out his hand, when my own met it he enveloped me into a man hug, "th-thanks mast-i mean lancelot" I said trying to return air to the lungs that were deprived of it due to Lancelot's hug. I returned to the top floor after stripping off the suit, retrieved Red, and made my back to the hotel. When I got there both Alice and Michael were lounging on the couch, "hey guys, guess what" "what?" They asked merrily, "I've finished, my training and I'm going to go after Lord Pain's castle, I'm leaving Sunday" I told them, oh and Lancelot want to meet you two" "Well congratulations Jonathan, my trainings basically done too so I'm going to go with you, oh and Lucy wants to see you guys too" Alice told us, "Well I have learnt as much about mechanics as I can so I might as well come with you guys, oh and Volts doesn't want to see you, no offence but he's resting after being nearly blown up by his last device" Michael told us, we both stared at him "ok sorry" "So you two really want to come with me? Well ok then, these next three days well get ready but until, then I think we've all earned a good nights sleep. So I say lets all turn in early tonight" I said, neither of them objected. We went to bed early after a dinner of leftover pork. The next few days we spent gathering food for the trip, Michael gathered small mechanical parts the purpose of which eluded me, Alice got ingredients for potions, and I got knives, darts, a blowgun, and a couple of throwing stars, because they're cool, and three horses. The morning of our big departure Alice took us to see Lucy, when she saw us she came and gave Alice a hug. "Good luck my dear, and please be sure to stay alive, also I have a few presents for you." She took out a small locket, which she gave to Alice "when the time comes open the locket and help will arrive" she then retrieved a small crustal and gave it to me "when you find him, put it in his lock to release him" "who?" I asked, she just smiled and shook her head, she then gave Michael a pat on the head. We left the shop and decided to go eat some lunch, it was still hours before we had to meet Lancelot, Michael said he wanted to go say goodbye to Volts so he left to do so. I ordered a simple meal of fish and bread, while Alice ordered a cheese burger. As I ate, I overheard the conversation of the men opposite us "yeah they were the admins, the original ones, there as Andrael masters, Lord Pain, TheReaper, TheJudge, Lancelot shadows, and the owner was Castiel" I froze, could it be?. "Excuse me sir?" I said, they both looked at me "Did I hear you right? Did you say Lancelot shadows?" When they nodded their heads I knew my initial assumption was right "Thanks for your help" When it was time to meet Lancelot I wasted no time in making my way there, I walked into the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor, before looking to see if Alice followed me on. When the elevator jerked to a stop at the top flooring, I climbed out before the doors even fully opened. Before Lancelot could begin speaking I interrupted him, "you were an admin" he closed his mouth "you should have told me" "we'll its really none of your business, my past is my past and its not yours. And anyway how would I have told you? 'Hey Jonathan I was a co-worker with the most evil man on this server'" I said nothing "ok, now lets put this unpleasantness behind us, so who is this?" I'm Alice" she said "Alice? That's a pretty name" he told her, Michael burst into the room "sorry I'm late, Volts wanted me to get a few things from the shop" he walked over to us. "Now, I have a few things to give to each of you, wait right here" Lancelot walked over to the box I had seen so many times in training, he pulled out a small ring, it was plain gold "Alice, this a ring that has been infused with magic, it will enhance your magical abilities" he put it into Alice's palm, he went back to the box and took out a pair of black gloves and a rolled up map, he handed me the gloves first "these are gloves I used in battles, they are enchanted and will never wear, nor will they tear, they shall never be pierced. With them on, your sword will not leave your hand unless you consent to it" he the handed me the map "this map will lead you to your destination" "what about me?" Michael asked, Lancelot look at him for a moment then went back to his box "here's a cookie" he handed it to Michael. Michael shot Lancelot a look that was reserved for only ones most loathe some enemies, and took the cookie. "Now you best be going, the journey ahead of you is a long one, and take care of yourself, I wouldn't want you to die" "you as well" I told him. We left the tower and got on our horses, we started out of town and when we crested the hill on the north side of town I pulled out the map and looked over it. On it I could see the town, I could also see the surrounding area and near the edge of the map was a dark shape, it appeared to be surrounded by a reddish yellow liquid. The hill that we stood on was also depicted in the map, there was a white marker, an arrow, that moved when I did. "We need to head north west" I told them, the both gave me a nervous smile, we headed north west, we kept the horses at a slow trot as not to tire them too quickly. We covered about a hundred kilometres the first day, on the second we came across a thriving village, they were inhabited by the squid ward-like villager common to the game. These villagers, unlike the common one we always have know, could speak, they met us at the gate in the fence that surrounded their village. One spoke "welcome travellers to the village of Oblak, we would let you rest in one of our houses if you wish" "that'd be great thanks" I said "good, good, I am Stom the leader of this village, and this-" he said indicating another villager behind him "-is Lally my wife, she will show you the way to your house" The villager, Lally, turned around and took off through the crown, not waiting for us to follow. After a few seconds walk she stopped at a house next to what looked like a jail, "this is where you will stay" she told us, after which she promptly left us, we called thanks after her, but either she didn't hear us or just didn't want to hear us. We entered house, it was small, only a few steps in any direction, there were four beds against one wall which took up most of the space, the rest was occupied by a few chests, we all took off everything we had and placed it in the chest, although I kept my sword at my side, Alice kept her ring and her locket, and for the first time i noticed that Michael had a pick axe on his back, it was made of diamond and had a slight purplish glow to it, presumably it was enchanted, Michael kept this on his back. We closed the chests and each of us lay down on the beds, Michael and Alice was asleep almost instantly, probably because of the long trip, but it took me a while to do the same. My mind kept going back to thoughts of Jen, hoping, praying, wishing she was ok. My thoughts kept imagining up things that Lord pain would do to her, torturing her, throwing her into a pit with wild animals, making her work in deep mines, or worse killing her over and over again. After an unknown amount of time I fell asleep, dreaming of all the horrible and bloody ways Lord Pain could kill someone. I suddenly sat bolt upright, for a moment I was confused as the images of my night terrors faded away to nothing. After a few seconds of blinking away the fogginess in my mind I was assaulted by a scream, it was Alice she was sitting up in her and before her stood a creature from a nightmare, it was a person, but it was like no person I had ever seen. It's skin was pulled tight over its bones, there were gaping holes in the skin some places, the skin was ghostly pale. Through the holes we could see bones, some ribs in one, a tibia in another. It's left arm hung uselessly, while the other was raised to attack Alice, one of its feet were bent in an odd angle which gave it a limp. The most terrifying was its face, the left section of its face was torn open revealing its jawbone, the eye on that side hung on a thread of flesh out of its socket, the other eye was blood red where the whites should have been. It's clothing hung off it in torn rags. Alive screamed again, this broke me out of my daze and I was next to her in a second, just then something shiny sped by us and attacked the zombie, then more something's until the zombie was a crawling mass of metallic mice. The mice hid the zombie from View for a second and when they parted the zombie was gone, all that was left was its ragged clothing. Alice ran over to her brother, sobbing and thanking him. "Alice, Michael, get your things we're leaving" and before they could object I added "now, don't argue" the closed their mouthes and nodded. While they got our things I looked out the door, droves of zombies were coming into the village, trying to break down the doors. I heard a scream off to the west which indicated that a zombie had gotten into someone's house. Alice handed me my pack, we got our horses and set off heading out of town, we were accompanied by screams and pleas, we got outside of the village and stopped. "Look after your sister Michael, I'm going to help those people" "but... NO YOU CAN'T, I WON'T LET YOU" Alice screamed and started sobbing again, I continued "keep going towards the castle, save the people there, if I don't catch up to you guys assume that I'm dead, and most likely at Lord Pains castle. Now go" as i gave him the map, Michael nodded and dragged his screaming, scratching, kicking sister away. I turned around, looked back at the village where wisps of smoke were rising from some house and screams echoing across to me. I took the first step to my probable death, after the first few step I found myself running, my sword was out and there was a battle cry on my lips. I rushed into the village, decapitated the zombie that tried to grab me from an alleyway, continuing on I saw a horde of zombies chasing a single villager. The villager was screaming its head off, running frantically to avoid its death, its clothes were torn, bloodstained and dirty. I ran into the horde slicing through zombies as I went, I made it to the other side and saw the massive hole I had made in the horde. The zombies stopped chasing the villager, and looked at me. Each let out a horrendous screech, and charged. I weaves in and out of them, only getting slight nicks as I decimated their lines, but more came charging from all around the village. I sliced and slashed, losing myself in the fight, zombies fell all around me until I was standing on a hill made of the dead bodies, and yet they still came, hundreds pouring out from all around me. I lost myself in the fighting, time was meaningless in the mayhem. As I came back to my senses I realised I had almost taken the head off a villager who had come up to me in clear view. I looked around myself and saw hundreds of zombies lying dead, well deader, around me. I turned back to the villager who had retreated somewhat, he was saying something "-we owe you our lives stranger" "no big deal" I answered automatically, the villager just nodded and walked off towards the rest of the villagers who had gathered around me, one came up and gave me a loaf of bread and walked back, for a while all of us just stood there, then I turned and walked out of the village again. From the look of the sky I had been fighting for hours, when we had been awoken by the zombie attack it had been pitch black, now the sun was shining proudly in the sky. I found that Alice and Michael had left me a horse if i had survived. I rode for hours, my hand never far away from my sword, I stopped twice to let the horse eat and drink. I stared at the horizon squinting at the sun there, I didn't see the tell tale sign of Alice and Michael, this disheartened me but I quickly reminded myself it was a good thing, if they stayed anywhere too long it would be more like that they would be attacked. I rode throughout the night and only stopped to water my horse again. The next morning I came to a small camp site, the embers were in the fire were still hot which told me that my friends were only slightly ahead of me, though I couldn't see them as I had passed into a forest during the night, I followed the trail for a few hours and eventually emerged on the lip of a valley, before me in the middle of the valley stood Lord Pain's castle. To my left I saw them, they looked battered, bruised, and exhausted, but both Alice and Michael seemed OK. I rode over to them and stood behind them, I said "well you aught to be more observant" instantly I was surrounded by a tube made of ice, and confronted with a moving wall of metallic mice. "Hey! Hey! Stop its me" I said laughingly, the wall of mice parted and the ice tube melted. As I brushed the water drops from my clothes I was embraced in a bone crushing hug, "I knew it, I just knew it! I knew you were to good to die back there" there were tears streaming down Alice's face, Michael stood a bit back, his face expressionless, though his eyes told a story of joy. After an exchange of stories we got down to business. "So... How do you suppose we will be getting into there" Michael said gesturing at the castle. It was made is a dark red substance, I knew it to be nether brick, there were four towers, one at each corner of the walls surrounding the castle. The castle itself stood perfectly in the middle, also had four towers at the corners but the towers were taller and looked more to be suited to comfort than protection. The entire thing was surrounded by a moat filled with lava, about ten metres from the walls, though the space in between was on fire through which creatures walked without it affecting them. There was a single bridge across the lava moat, the entire place was crawling with monsters. The valley floor was made of a reddish substance, it spread out about 250 metres in any direction, no plant life was in sight. "Well I think we're going to have to fight our way in, or..." I trailed off as a thought appeared in my head. I had a plan. As I quickly outlined my plan I took the liberty to eat a quick breakfast. When I finished explaining my plan to the two, they both nodded. We decided to wait till day because we noticed thats when the zombies and skeletons go inside and the creepers and spiders come out. I'd rather face a spider out in the open than a ranged skeleton. When the shift happened we noted that one zombie stayed outside too long and started to catch fire, though it didn't seem to notice. We waited about half an hour before we started. Alice gathered a fire ball in her hand, she held it for a few seconds before throwing to streak across the sky and exploding a short distance to the side of the castle. As expected almost all the monsters rushed over looking for prey, while we ran straight for the entrance. Before the first and only spider to see us could raise any sort of alarm I used my magic to stun it, before impaling it on my sword, everything else was eaten by a swarm of metallic rats, except for a single creeper who decided to kamikaze bomb the swarm around him, taking out a decent amount of them. We rushed to the door, it was locked using some electronic system that was controlled by a pad next to the door. Michael instantly went to it and, after a few long seconds, the door clicked open, we ran inside just in time to avoid being seen by the monster, returning with sad faces from not having any prey. We ran right into the faces of two very startled looking humans, as they drew breath to scream Alice covered them in ice, I threw an alarmed look at Alice but all she said was "it's not cold and they can breath in it" As we passed them I touched the ice and it was indeed not cold, though I still doubted wether they could breath. We ran down a long hallway, there was a door at the end of it. As we neared the door I realised it was made of a strange black material, there was no obvious door handle. Michael searched frantically around the door for a full minute "there's no switch, pad, keyhole, or even a door knob, this door can't be opened from here, and it's made from obsidian so nothing we throw at it can break it" he finally said "we've failed" he began to sob. "No, we haven't" I told him, he threw me a questioning look. I walked up to the door and concentrated, I closed my eyes and concentrated even harder. I put my hand against the door and pushed, but the door didn't move, I did. My hand went straight through the door, and I stepped through to the other side. I was in a large spherical room, well spherical as you can make using square blocks. In the centre of the room was a large throne made of gold and nether brick. On each wall there was another hallway leading off in different directions. I turned back to the door, there was a bolt securing it, I pulled back the bolt and the door swung open. Alice and Michael stared at me with open mouths "how did you do that?" Alice asked, "Lucy taught me everything she thought I would find useful" I told her "ok well there are three different hallways, so I'm thinking we should split up, Alice you take the one to the left, Michael, you take the one to the right and I'll take the one straight ahead", "wait" Michael said suddenly, he fished around in his bag for awhile, finally he pulled out three small hooked microphones that had little speaker in the middle "here, put these on, we can talk to each other using them" he gave one to each of us. We all headed off in our designated directions. In my hallway I found a long line of doors on both walls, I checked each of them, one by one. Mostly the rooms contained bedrooms and lounges, but some of them were sinister, on room had what appeared to bra surgical table with all kinds of equipment on tables. While another had an assortment of torture devices, some contained things too horrible to think about. I heard a cracklings over the radio and a second later Michael's voice came, "I've found some people over here, they're locked in a cage, I'm going to try and break them out. Over" he said, "I've found some too" Alice said as well. "Is she with either of you?" I asked over the radio. "Not here" Michael told me, "not here either, sorry Jonathan" Alice told me. I stood for a second contemplating what to do "guys, free those people and take them out, I will keep looking and see if I can find any others" I told them, thankfully they agreed, although reluctantly. After a few more minutes of searching I came to the end of the hallway and found myself in a large room, there was a doorway at the end of it. There were paintings of monstrous situations on the walls and a long red carpet in the floor. The most shocking thing in the room was a girl, chained to the floor. It was Jen. Behind her stood a man with an incredible presence. He was not abnormally tall but seemed to be, he had long flowing blonde hair, his facial features fine and chiseled, he wore a extremely beautiful black suit with a blood red shirt and matching tie. He looked like the businessman from hell. Everything about him screamed Lord Pain. "Well, well, well. Jonathan my boy, it's so nice to finally meet you" he held out his hand, I did not make a move to reach for it "no? Well I can't blame you. So I've heard a lot about you. It seems you've made quite a name for yourself in these lands. I'm curious, how did you get past all my guards?" Anger burned in my veins, anger at all the evil deeds this man had done, the evil he was doing at this very moment. "Let her go" I demanded, he looked amused at my demand. "Straight to the point I see, you are so much like Lancelot, you both are as straight as arrows, but as thick as a boulder" the corner of his mouth lifted into either a smile or a sneer "I'm afraid I cannot do that, you see I've grown quite fond of this one" he lightly stroked her hair, causing her to jerk away from him, face still downcast. "Then I take her from you" I shouted. This amused him even more "you really think you can defeat me? I'm Lord Pain you little maggot. I can crush you with a wave of my hand, you would die for nothing" for once I returned the smile, it didn't reach my eyes "we'll see about that" I yanked my sword out, slicing at the spot where Lord Pain used to be, at the last moment I jerked the sword and it stabbed behind me. I felt a slight resistance which immediately vanished. I looked over my shoulder. Lord Pain stood hands on a small cut in his stomach, barely a flesh wound but he looked as if I had cut off both his arms "seems I have underestimate you Jonathan. I won't make that mistake again" he had his own sword out in a flash slicing down at me, my sword barely blocked its path, Lord Pain didn't even give me a chance to recover as his sword came at me again, before being knocked back by a desperate block by me. Suddenly he was gone, I looked around frantically but he had just disappeared. A blinding pain appeared from my left leg. I looked down to see a long cut starting just above the knee,ending just below the thigh. That's when I realised it, without a seconds hesitation I concentrated hard, almost immediately I fell, hitting ground soon. I stood in a room, the exact shape of the one above, except it was barely high enough to stand. A sword rushed at me but I was ready for it. My own blade clanged against Lord Pain's, this time I stuck at him first, my blade deflecting off his as he parried returning with a swipe at my head, I ducked and stabbed at his foot but he kicked off and landed a dozen paces away. I sprinted at him barreling into him nearly knocking him over but he shoved me to the side using my own momentum to keep me moving. His sword came down into the ground where I had been before I rolled out of the way, it stuck. I swung at my opponent, slicing through his exquisite black jacket as he spun away. Now weapon less he jumped through the roof, back into our starting room, as I jumped after him I saw his game too late as he ducked back down, retrieving his weapon and returning upwards. We faced off again, I was limping due to my leg and he was staring at his ruined suit in anguish. We rushed each other, our blades colliding heavily I slowly forced his blade to the ground, before kicking it from the side. It shattered like glass leaving Lord Pain defenceless as I struck at him again, he threw the grip of his now gone sword down and batted my own sword away with the back of his hand, his fist hit my jaw like a freight train. My vision flickered black for a second, before more fists pummelled me, each held the power of a bus, soon I was on the floor covering my face with my arms, my sword forgotten in the moment, ribs broke, bruises blossomed, skin split and blood sprayed. Within minutes I was a bloody broken mess, I could barely breath, my jaw felt twice its size, my left arm hung useless and I was bleeding from multiple cuts, Lord Pain stood panting "you thought you could defeat me?! I am Lord Pain! I will make you watch as I torture your beloved Jenny for your insolence" he walked slowly towards the centre of the room, thinking quickly I grabbed a throwing knife and hurled it, the knife imbedded itself in Lord Pain's shoulder, eliciting an almighty screech from him. He turned to me, murder in his eyes, he rushed at me ready for a killing blow. He stopped mere inches from my face, confusion registered on his own before he look down at my sword which I had imbedded in his chest mere moments before, he gave another almighty screech before fading slowly into a shadow before dispersing fully. I stood up carefully and limped over to Jen's still form. I cut her chains away, as the last link fell away she was up and urging me fiercely, crying harshly. I patted her softly as she sobbed into my chest, when her sobs finally subsided I pulled her back slightly, took another look around the room, noticing the second door for the first time, I was drawn to that door, something on the other side calling me. I pulled Jen back even more, told her to stay there and that I'd be right back. I limped over to the door, easing it slowly open, inside I found a cage made of a glowing red series of rods. Within the cage stood a man dressed in dirty white clothing, and a gold crown, he examined me thoughtfully and said "hello Jonathan" surprised I only stared "I am Castiel" and then everything made sense. I hurriedly ripped out the crystal Lucy had given me. I shoved it into the lock of the cage, it instantly started growing, breaking through the lock and releasing the owner of the server. When I had released Castiel the castle had returned to white marble walls, painting turning to scenes of happiness, the monsters turning into harmless mobs, and the lake of lava turning to tranquil water. We had released everyone who had been held captive, families were reunited and Jen got her brother back. Castiel had thanked me for everything and had said I would receive a reward when he held his next meeting to correct things on the server. The day ok the meeting came and we listened intently when Castiel explained how he had been captured and held. Lancelot was with here along with Castiel, Jen, Alice, Michael, and myself, although Lancelot had been granted admin again by Castiel. When we had explained our side of events Castiel spoke again "well with this unpleasant bussiness behind us lets move on to more enjoyable things" his voice was rich and deep "as you all know I will be needing new admins, as most of them had been either banned or lost. So I would like to ask you four, Jonathan, Jenny, Alice, and Michael to be my new admins and Jonathan I would like for you to be head admin" and that's how I came to be kneeling in front of Castiel, the most powerful man on the server, having power flow into, my companions standing on either side leaving a single space on Castiel's right hand. It may seem like a happy ending but our battle is far from over.