THIS IS PART 2 OF THE STORY 100 DAYS TO MINE.
100 Days To Mine Part 2
(Still) By: Zuned1
Chapter 16: Our Moment of Weakness.
{Julia}

I'd woken up, leaning against the same wall I'd run into. I was confused at first, unable to remember my own name. Then it all came rushing back to me. It hit me like... Like a wall. The recent events suddenly flashed through my mind, and I grew sorrowed. Tears started forming in my eyes. I didn't want to believe it. I ran down to the bottom of the castle, and ran outside. I ran around the castle until I came to the side the balcony faces off of. I saw a crowd, gathered around something. I had a terrible fear that I knew what it was. I pushed through the crowd, and made my way to the center. What I found disturbed me. It was terrible...
I looked at the body. Alex's body. The ground had been somewhat chipped into, with cracks all around it. All the cracks were filled with blood. His limbs were distorted, facing in ways they obviously weren't meant to. There was bone sticking out of his elbow. I didn't want to look at his face, but I did. It filled me with dread. His eyes were closed, blood streaming out of his nose. His smile was the same as when he had fell. The knife was in his side. I didn't dare touch. I grabbed his hand and starter bawling into it. I wasn't ashamed to cry in front of everybody. I sat there, and cried. I didn't know how long I'd been crying, but I knew it had gotten dark out. I got up and went to bed. I didn't want to see anybody, or be distracted by anything. I wanted to sleep.

The Next Day I woke up, by eyes swollen and red. I felt like I had when I'd first arrived; confused, alone, and scared. I got angry, and started to punch the wall nearest me. I cried, the tears filled with anger. All of the sudden, some grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face them. I came face-to-face with a little boy. I was roughly 5'8"; the boy in front of me was 4'7". He had blonde hair, in a bowl-cut, like Beetles style. He looked no older than age 10 or so. I was startled someone his size would have such... bravery. "Listen, girlie. You gotta calm down. Your friend is dead, and I know you two absolutely loved each other. But believe me, crying isn't going to do anything. And also, about that apocalypse.. It's coming earlier than even Notch predicted. It's coming today." I listened to what he said. I wasn't in the mood for such crap, so I told him, 'Alright, little boy. Go back to your mommy, and let me handle it." He just gave me a face that said, 'I'm not little, I don't go to my mommy, and I deserve respect.' I just stared at him. He stood there, pouting. I laughed, and I couldn't help it. He had such a serious face on himself, and he was so young. "Alright, if you won't listen to me, then don't. But when we're all dead, just you watch. You'll say, 'We should've listened to Phillip! He was right all along!' And I'll be laughing." He said. He stomped his feet as he climb out the door. I ignored what he said, and went into a small depression. I thought about all the good times I'd had with Alex. I laughed when I thought about how we'd treated each other when I'd first arrived. I didn't know how long I'd been thinking, but it had actually been a long time. It was 6 hours later when I began to wish Phillip had been wrong.

I came out of my little brain space when I heard an explosion. I remembered the wall had been fixed, and began to relax a little. I climb all the way to the top of the tower, and looked at the scene before me. There were hundreds of them. It was sundown, and there were already hundreds of them. I saw the zombies walking, appearing to be the main fighting force. The grunts. The skeletons, with their bows, followed. Mixed in the crowd now and then were spiders. Leading the invasion were creepers. They would charge at the wall, and blow it up. They only blew out a certain amount of wall, but soon, the wall was breached. All the monsters started flowing through the hole, when there was a sudden boom. It hadn't been a creeper. I looked at the inner wall, and saw Phillip. He had bows, with TNT tied to the arrows. He notched another arrow, lit the fuse, and fired. It hit the crowd, and blew up a good chunk of the monsters. I quickly ran down the tower and joined him. I got a few of the good archers in the town, and got them to Phillip. He had a giant stockpile of the arrows, and so all the archers took a few. Meanwhile, I'd gotten most of our knights ready. All the children, elders, disabled people, and females unfit to fight were brought to the castle for safety. Meanwhile, most of the monster army was gone, when suddenly the stockpile was empty. No more explosive arrows. I cursed, and grabbed my sword from my room. When I got back to the fight, the inner wall had been breached. The knights were fighting the zombies, who were surprisingly deadly. The skeletons were firing volleys of arrows, but our archers were quickly dispatching them. We were going to win. The zombies were almost gone, no creepers left, most spiders were dead, and the skeletons were being finished off. It seemed short, but the battle had taken a good 5 hours. I went over and hugged Phillip. He was smiling, and cheering. I gave him a big hug, so thankful that he had made his arrows. "By the way, I'm actually 8." He said. I was so shocked at this. I don't know why, but I was. I just gave him a hug, and ran to the castle. There, I saw everybody still scared. "You guys! We won! Don't be scared, they're gone!" Suddenly, they all began cheering. I didn't know what to do, I was so happy. Then, I was hit by a sudden wave of drowsiness. So I went down and went to sleep. It took me a while, but soon the adrenaline faded.

Chapter 17: Phillip's People Phobia.
{Julia}

"Phillip, you're going to tell me; do you have any special powers?" I asked him. We were on the third floor, sitting at a table on the balcony. "No. Why do you think that?" He said. His voice was small, and cute. It made it hard to believe that he could have powers. But I had proof. "Last night, you said to me, 'By the way, I'm 8.' Why'd you say that?" He was at a loss for words. I could tell he knew he'd been cornered. "Because, in your room yesterday, you said that I was 10. I heard you." He said. He seemed so very convinced. "Phillip, I didn't say that. I thought it, yes, but I never said that I thought you were 10." His face was one of shock. "No! You said it! I heard you!" He was shouting now. He didn't seem to realize it, that he could... Read people's minds? It seemed that was what it was. And who knew what else he could do? "Alright, go Phillip. I don't need you anymore." He ran out, relieved. I sat at the makeshift table, and thought. My mind was full of even more questions, as if being distracted by Alex's death, the recent invasion, and other problems wasn't enough. I tried to distract myself.
I walked out of the inner wall, and into the outer wall. The wall had been finished, until it was recently destroyed. I'd gotten people to finish it off, and close the hole. I was just glad the apocalypse was over. But something had been nagging at the back of my mind. Had John been attacked too? I snuck off without telling anyone. Then the thought that this was almost exactly what Alex had done began to nag at the back of my head. I got over it, and soon arrived at the castle. I climbed over the wall by using some of the loose bricks, and made my way to the castle. I grew nervous when I saw it. It was the place where... I didn't even want to think about it. I grabbed the moss on the wall of the castle, and climbed it to the top. When I got to the 3rd floor, I got in. It was John's floor. He was in his bed. He wasn't wearing a shirt. He head a bandage on his lower torso. All around his stomach, it was black and blue. He opened his eyes, as if he sensed me. He looked at me. A mischievous... No... Promiscuous smile formed on his face. I grew nervous. "So, you chose me. You chose me over that pathetic loser. But you couldn't have earlier?" He said, strained. "No, you bastard. I didn't come for you. I came to ask you something." His smile dissipated. "Before you ask, let me ask you something. What reason is keeping me from calling the guards?" "None. But this is important." He frowned, and nodded to continue. I told him what had happened last night, and then asked him if he had been attacked. "No. There weren't any attacks, not that I was told. And I'm always told." He said, sure of himself. Then he got his smile again. "GUARDS! Seal off the entrances! Get a man posted on the walls!" He shouted. He snickered, and laid back. Suddenly, two guards were at the door. I jumped out the window, and grabbed onto the moss. I got close to the ground and jumped the last few feet. I ran to the wall, to escape. I used the bricks, but when I got to the top, two guards with spears greeted me. Rudely.

I was dragged back into John's room. He looked up, and told the guards to tie me to the column. He said he would deal with me later. The guards dragged me to a column, and tied my hands together, to a hook, above me. Then they tied my feet up, and my chest. I thought about how to escape, as the guards left. They extinguished the last candle, and I knew that I couldn't get out. So instead, I began to think I thought about how before, Alex had saved me. But he hadn't respawned yet. I began to lose hope. Alex wasn't coming this time. I was stuck here. I was... John's.

Chapter 18: John's Jacked up.

When I woke up, I felt myself being pulled, and I heard wood scraping stone. I slowly opened my eyes, and realized I was in a hallway, going up to the top floor of John's castle. I let myself be dragged, and soon we were at the top. I regretted not fighting. John told the guards to wait down below. He then looked at me. I was on the ground, tied up, and gagged. He looked at me. "Here we are again. You tied up, and me with a dirty idea. But this time, not the same one. You'll see." He said. Then he walked over to me. He kneeled down on top of me, and began his dirty acts. He unbuttoned my shirt, and took it off. Completely off. He balled it up, and threw it off the roof of the tower we were on. He did the same with my pants. He was on top of me, and I was hopeless, as well as somewhat nude. I was under him, wearing nothing but my black bra and my black thong. He had the same smile he wore when Alex hit him. I wanted to cry.
John didn't get dirty... At least not that bad. He started kissing me, forcefully. I hated it. He forced his tongue into my mouth, and I bit it. He jumped up, appearing to be done with me. He called the guards back, and gave them instructions inaudible to my ears. Then, they tied me up to the wooden pole that had been near us the whole time. I didn't wonder exactly what they were doing, until they started hanging me over the edge. I thought they would drop me, and kill me... I got very nervous. Then, they began to fix the wood into place. I realized what my torture was. I was to hang, semi-nude, over everyone in John's kingdom. And if I cut myself free, I'd drop and die.

I don't know how long I'd been hanging there. 3, 4 hours? John came back up, obviously with intentions. "Alright, Julia, are you sorry for what you've done to me?" I just stared at him, with an angry expression. I was embarrassed. I'd seen plenty of men making bad gestures, females giving me looks, children pointing and laughing, and even one guy painted a picture of me.

"Julia!" He screamed, "You'd better be sorry! Or else you will be!" He was steaming. After staring at me give him bad looks, he couldn't take it anymore. He thrusted his foot out, and kicked me, in my breast. It hurt like hell. I winced, and my eyes teared up a bit. He laughed. "Are you sorry now?" He said. I nodded, beginning to cry. He motioned for two guards to untie me from the log. He took us back down into his room. He tied me to his bed. Again. He paced in front of his bed. On the way out, a guard bumped a vase off a table. John gave him a look, and the guard left. He turned back to me. "So. You're sorry. How can I believe you?" He said. "I was hanging nude in front of your freaking populous! You kicked me in the boob!" I shouted. He laughed. I wonder why he didn't have a girl. He untied my arms, but made sure that my chest was tied down. "So you're sorry. Are you willing to prove it?" He said. My eyes grew wide. "What do you mean by that?" I asked. He went over to the window. When he saw how dark it was, he was startled. "I guess we'll have to wait till tomorrow, won't we." And he tied me to the pole closest to the door. He went to sleep, and extinguished the candles. I sat there, hopelessly, and realized something. Earlier, the guard had broken a vase. And I was near it. I tried to find a sharp piece, and found one. I wanted to cut myself free, but couldn't. Instead, I hid it in my bra, and waited for the next morning. I expected it to be eventful.

I woke up tied to the bed again. It was getting repetitive. "So. I think you know how you can prove yourself." He said. "Of course I do. And you know what? I've thought about what you've said, everything you've said here. How Alex was weak, and unfit to be a leader, and that he was terrible. And you know what? I agree. Alex is a scrawny little brat. And I want to prove myself to you. So come here, and let's get it on." I said. He looked startled at first, for obvious reasons. But then he smiled at me. He climbed in bed, on top of me. He cut the ropes off my arms and legs. He unzipped his pants, and laid down on top of me. I won't describe it entirely. But yeah, it happened. It needed to be done. We went for 5 minutes, until it was the perfect time. That was when I made my move. His eyes were closed, so I took the glass shard out of my bra, and thrust it up into his stomach. His eyes opened in terror. "But you.. We.. You..." And he started mumbling things, sentences that only got one word out. I pushed him off of me. He laid there on the bed, naked. I pulled up my thong, and wiped the blood of my stomach. I suddenly became nauseous at what happened. The fact that I had lost my virginity to John, the douche. I wished I had lost it to Alex, not the rapist douche bag. I gathered my senses, and went down the tower, the mossy way. This time, John would surely die. I fled the kingdom, back to my kingdom.

I had snuck into my room, past everyone. It would've been embarrassing. But wouldn't you know, inside my room, waiting for me, was blasted little Phillip. "Oh, not what I expected you to wear, a girl like you. But whatever, I suppose. You know, what you said earlier, about my powers... You were right. I don't have powers. I didn't know it at that time, but I've harnessed them now. I can control them. And, uh... I won't tell anyone what happened with you and John." I was shocked. It was true. I sat down next to him on the bed, forgetting I was almost naked, and put my arm around him. "I like you, Phillip, And you'd better not." I said.

Chapter 19: We Lose Hope.
{Alex}

I'd been... It felt like floating, in a big, dark, vast, never ending void. I didn't know what was happening. Until an unknown amount of time had passed. I opened my eyes. I tried to figure out where I was. I was in a hospital. In my real world. I looked around, and knew it for sure. There were no TVs, no big expensive medical equipment, and no mothers in Julans. I looked at my mother's face. I expected to see her fuming, screaming at me for stealing her car. But she wasn't. She grabbed my hand, and looked at me. "Please Alex, please be okay. Just... Promise me you'll be okay, okay?" I smiled at her. "I'll be fine Mom. Don't worry." I began to slip back into unconsciousness, back into the black void, where I was to stay.
{Julia}

"Phillip, we both know it now. You have... Some kind of power, and probably even more. So you gotta promise me something. Are you gonna use that power for bad? You have to promise me that you won't." I had been talking with him for a while. He nodded, hardly paying attention to what I was doing or asking. He was busy thinking about something. What, I didn't know. I asked him a few more questions about how long he'd thought this had been going on. Then he asked me something. "Do you think Alex will ever come back?" I cringed a little. That was a sensitive topic recently. "I truthfully... Don't know. I don't know if he will, but it actually looks like he won't... He's been gone too long. If he's been reborn already, it wouldn't have taken him this long to find his way back here. And I know John couldn't have gotten him. He gonna be a little... Preoccupied." I said the last sentence with a smile. Phillip smiled too. "Wait, Phillip... Is there a slight chance that you could be more than just a mind-reader? Could you... Like... Be someone who also has telekinesis and other superpowers?" I asked him. I looked very desperately at him. He thought for a moment, and then got a very frustrated face. "Eh, Phillip, what are you doing? Please don't try to blow up on me." He just kept focusing. I traced his gaze, and found he was focusing on a spoon. We sat for a few minutes, and then the spoon did something amazing. It started shaking, then started to hover. It hovered, and came over to me. Then it dropped to the floor. I looked at Phillip. We both stared at the spoon in awe.
It had been 3 hours since the spoon. The burial for Alex had been held. The bodies of victims usually disappear when they're going to be brought back, but Alex's didn't. It stayed where it was. Today, we buried it, and held a proper burial. It was the start of our graveyard. We gave him a grand gravestone, made of iron, with gold and diamonds to spice it up. The epitaph on it read, 'Here lies the savior, the creator, and warrior. May Alex Rest in Peace.' I walked away from the scene crying. Phillip placed a few flowers, and left to comfort me. Back at the castle, we prepared for night time. "Phillip... I was wondering. Would you like a room in the castle? It's the safest place here. I'm not sure anyone outside will accept you anymore, knowing your current state." I gave him a look that said, 'Please? I'd love it if you did.' He nodded. "Great! I won't be so lonely anymore. You can have, uh... John's room. He won't need it again. Just make yourself comfortable for tonight, we'll redo it tomorrow." And so me and Phillip went to sleep, unaware of the army of men, swords, arrows, and, uh... 'Tamed' zombies approaching us.

Chapter 20: Our Occupation.

Somehow, John had managed to find out that our kingdom was leaderless, and our army was still recuperating from the apocalypse. No one had been killed, only injured. But we were weak. We surrendered to their armies, because we knew that we would lose. Their occupation has lasted 3 days. It has been 5 days since the apocalypse, meaning that if Notch had been right, there were 5 days till the apocalypse. They have allowed me and Phillip to remain in the castle, however under surveillance.
{Alex}

I've been in the hospital for 2 weeks, apparently. I kept showing vitals, but I never became conscious, till two days ago. I'd sort of like the hotel. I hadn't been badly injured in my accident. My legs had been punctured by the door, and my arm had been cut by the glass. I was walking back to my room from dinner one night, when I was given the chance to see Julia one more time. Someone walked into my room. It was a man, appeared to be 40. He looked kind, and was round around the tummy. "Hello, Alex. I'm Notch. I followed you here, to give you a chance. The world you left is no longer there. It has been changed, altered... But I give you a chance. You may return there, with me, or you may stay here. But know this, Alex. That world, Julans," He gave a chuckle and continued, "Is real. So much more than real. It's another dimension. Some people are given second chances there, almost like a limbo that gives you a second chance. I must return there; I created that world, and it belongs to me. But I have come here, because I wish to offer you the choice of returning." He closed his eyes and summoned a portal on the wall. "I will go. You have 5 minutes to decide whether you would like to come or not." And at that, he left through the portal. I sat and stared at it, at it's marvelous beauty. I could see many different dimensions through it. I saw one made of candy, one made to be very modern, like the future, one where everyone was kind to each other. I wanted to go back to Julans. I got up, and walked to the portal. I stared into it. I longed for my kingdom. I longed to see Julia again, to rule as a king. But I could stay here. With my mom, where I belonged. At looked back at the portal. I wanted it, so bad... I took a step into it, and was suddenly thrown with such force. It suddenly made a loud popping noise as I was sucked into it.
I flew through the black, feeling the multiple G-forces on my face. I suddenly saw a light in the distance. I was thrown out of a hole in the ground, much like last time. I fell into a tree, which cushioned my fall slightly. I fell to the bottom, and bruised my butt. I'd expected to not retain my wounds from before, but I had. The same clothes I'd been wearing, the same cast, the same grease and grime on my face... It was all suddenly the same. I felt like crap. I walked around a bit, my legs appearing to have healed slightly. I remembered a certain tree, larger than all the others. It pointed to the direction of my kingdom. And so, I head out in that direction.

Back in the hospital, the portal had not yet dissipated. I had ignored what would have happened to it, and simply went through. But the pop had attracted the attention of two twin children in the room next to me. They'd heard the pop, and decided to investigate. They walked into my room, and saw the portal. They shared an amazed expression with each other, and walked over. The male touched the portal, curious about what it was, and it sucked him in. The girl cried and ran after him. They were both sucked into the portal, to be deposited into Julans.

I saw it getting dark out. Unsure of whether there were to be monsters or not, I stopped and made a simple dirt shelter. I took some torches that had been illuminating nothing, and put them up on my house. I made a dirt bed, and laid down for the night.

The twins were spat out of the earth, their landing a bit luckier. They landed in a large lake, and then swam to shore. They wandered into the forest, and soon saw the light coming off of my small shelter. That was what changed their fate forever.

Chapter 21: Double Trouble.

The twins approached my small hut. I was asleep, but one of them stepped on a stick, and since my senses were in hyper drive, it was enough to wake me up. I perked up, and looked out the makeshift window. I saw the two twins approaching my small makeshift cabin. They came closer, and I examined them once they were in the light. The male was fairly tall, 5'5", brown, bushy hair, blue eyes, not very muscular, a slight tan. The girl was a little shorter than the boy, but certainly different. I didn't know they were twins until they would tell me later. But as for the girl, she had blonde, long, straight hair, blue eyes, and she was slightly pale. She had freckles on her nose and under her eyes.
They approached my hut. I shouted at them through the hole in the wall I made. "Hey! Get in here, now! It's dangerous out there!" They looked at me, and then ran to me. I ushered them inside, then sealed off the door. "Who are you two?" I asked. "I'm Aaron! But people call me Ari." He said, enthusiastically. "I'm Arianne." Said the girl. "We're twins. Fraternal, of course." Said Ari. I laughed at the thought. I don't know why, it seemed funny to me. "So, twins... How old are you guys?" I asked. "We're 12!" They said simultaneously. I could tell then, that they were twins. "Well, guys. Here's what you ought to know about this world you're in, as general ground rules. First; Never go out at night unarmed. There are monsters crawling around this place at night. Second; always try to remember where you are. And third; Don't trust the man named John. Now you two... Make a pile of dirt for your bed, or sleep on the floor. I'm going to bed." I said. I went to bed, while Ari and Arianne stayed up. They were on the ground, talking for a little.

"Can we trust him? He seems sneaky to me." Arianne said. "I think so. At least, for now. There are monsters out there, just look. If we leave, we're going to most likely die. So let's just trust him and sleep for now." Said Ari. He laid his head down, and fell asleep near instantly. Arianne laid down, and tried to sleep, but obviously couldn't. She seemed unable because she was scared of me, for whatever reason. Then, the three of us were soon asleep. We slept until the next morning, where a shocking discovery would shock me.

Chapter 22: Revenge is a Dish Best Served by a Handicap.

We'd been walking for a couple of minutes. I'd taken the torches from the shelter, and had started to head out for the kingdom. I took the twins with me. On the way, Ari started asking me a ton of irritating questions, and I answered them all.
"Where are we going?"
"My kingdom."
"You're a king?"
"Yes."
"Can we be your royal advisors or something?"
"Uh... Maybe."
"Do you have a princess?" He asked. That one had struck a nerve. I'd cringed when he'd said princess.
"Well... I'm hoping I do. Don't ask what that means, it's a long story." And we continued on in silence. Behind me, the twins were mouthing words back and forth. "What do you think he's hiding?" Arianne mouthed. "Something big." Ari replied. They continued on behind me in silence.
We arrived at the castle, but I'd stopped short, behind a tree. I saw guards at the gate, but knew they weren't mine by their armor. They wore iron encrusted with gold. My army wore a mixture of leather, iron, and diamond. I watched the guards and knew they weren't mine. ~Time to put my secret entrance to good use.~ I thought. I'd built a secret entrance, knowing that John could very well attack me. It was in the mine, in the mountain. The one where we'd found the hourglass. We'd built a wall to prevent people from finding the glass. But there was still a minecart track leading to the trap I'd placed. "Get in the cart." I told the twins. They obeyed, and I gave the cart a push. At the last second, I hopped in too. I grabbed the sides of the cart, and leaned to keep the cart from falling over. The twins were simply shouting with glee. I sighed, and kept goon. When I saw the special Redstone torch, I shouted to the twins, "Jump!" and we all did. The cart triggered a block of TNT, which hadn't hurt any of us since we'd jumped. But the minecart ended up falling into a pit of lava. The twins stared at each other, their mouths gaping. "That's not all." I said. I threw a rock, and triggered the next trap. This one was carefully placed to create a hole in the wall. That hole would not affect the room it connected to; you could easily seal the hold off again. I walked into the room, and the twins followed. I then sealed the hole off. I knew where I was; my room. I looked around. If there were a few things I could take, what would they be? I chose a diamond knife I'd made and Notch's diary. I told the twins to take some of the pork in the chest and hold it on them. I looked into the hallway, and saw no one. I walked into the hallway, to Julia's doorway. I saw one guard. He was arguing with Julia about something. I told the twins to be quiet and stay still, and then I went into the room. Julia didn't see me. I stabbed the man in the neck, killing him and preventing him from making any sounds at the same time.

Julia got a look of surprise, then shock when she saw it was me. She sat there for a second, her mouth gaping. I smiled at her reaction, then she jumped up and hugged me as hard as she could. She smiled at my face, and hugged me again. I hugged her back, and laughed. Then she slapped me abruptly. I rubbed my face where she hit me. I looked at her. "Why the hell did you do that? You didn't have to fall over the edge! You freaking left me! Do you realize what's happened while you were gone? John took over! I injured him again! He's still not dead. How are you gonna beat him?" She asked. I sighed. "Listen, Julia. I don't know how I'm gonna do it. But I'm gonna make a door, into your room. So I can visit you when I need to. It'll help, later. Oh, and by the way... I picked up some twins." I said. I gestured for the twins to come inside. Ari had a pout look on his face. I heard him mumble, "I could've sworn they were gonna kiss." I laughed. "Look, Julia. First off, this is Ari and Arianne. I picked them up on my way. I figure they can help me with the resistance. Also... Who is in that room over there? There's a little blonde boy." I asked. "That's Phillip. You should take him too, he's got powers. I'm worried if John finds out, then he'll take advantage of him." And I went and got Phillip. He came inside, looking rather upset. "I don't want to go with him! He can't take care of himself, look at those injuries!" Julia shushed him, and convinced him it was safer for him with me. Then I heard him threaten something like, "I'll tell him!" Julia looked shocked, then got very stern. She whispered in his ear, just out of my earshot, "If you do, I'll feed you to the zombies." Phillip got nervous, and reluctantly agreed.

Me, the twins, and Phillip were all hiking out on the mountain near the kingdom. We were hidden by some trees, so there was a low chance of being discovered. We'd been there for a few days, planning how to free the city from John's grasp, when Arianne came up with a genius plan. Maybe she wasn't useless after all. This was how her plan went: "First, Alex goes and tells Julia her part of our plan. Her part is this: She's going to go out in the kingdom for a stroll, and warn everybody to stay away from the castle, or any guards for the day. Then, we attack the guards. Alex will sneak in through the castle, and with Julia's help, they'll be our ground fighters. Ari will help take out defenses from the gate. Ari, you have the most dangerous job. Phillip, you're to make your supposedly famous TNT arrows. As many as you can. You and I will be raining fire from a nearby tree. Together, we can win this. And if we can get the townspeople to help, even better. Alright? Now get some sleep guys. We've got a big day tomorrow." And so me, the twins, Phillip, and Julia all slept like logs that night, in preparation for the coming battle. Well, I fell asleep a little later than the rest. I was busy.

I was reading Notch's diary. I'd been gone for a week, and wanted to catch up. The first entry:
'Beware the monster's that are coming. They're not the true apocalypse. They're simply some monsters that found your kingdom, and are attacking. There's a lot of them, but it's not. Trust me.
Notch.'

I was startled. That explained the hole in the inner wall. Creepers. And all the other monsters... That was probably where Phillip used his arrows. I read on.

'This is addressed to Julia. Alex, I wouldn't read this until after the true apocalypse. Believe me, it is better for everyone.'

So I skipped it, to come back later.

'Today, John took rule of Alex's kingdom. I had to retrieve Alex from his true dimension. I'm not sure... If he'll be able to respawn anymore. He must be careful.
As for John, he doesn't stay in Alex's kingdom. Thinks it's too dangerous. That should make it easier for Alex, though.
Meanwhile, I've been researching. As far as this worlds limits go, I can't find a large concentration of monsters. Not aboveground, not underground, not during nighttime. I believe this means something bigger is coming. I grow nervous.
Notch'

And those were the end of the entries. I was startled at the last one. Where could they be, if not here? It made me think; what if the monsters are in another dimension, preparing? We could be way in over our heads.

Chapter 23: Sometimes, it's better when it's not simple.

I awoke that morning, eager, and anxious. We were going to attack. We started with my role; I had to go get Julia in on the plan.
I snuck into Julia's room, the way I knew. I told her what she was supposed to do. She agreed, and an hour later, she came back, and told me she had done it. Then, she tossed me a sword, and got her sword. We started to take out all the guards in the castle. If they were alone, we would stab them in the neck. It would kill instantly, and it also silences them. We walked into each room, taking out the guards. We had a little trouble on the top floor, though.

Three guards were eating, and two were on the balcony. Me and Julia went for the ones eating first. I threw my sword at one of them as I opened the door. One drew his sword, the other rose his fists. Julia jumped on the table and ran to fight the one with a sword. I grabbed a chair, and hit my guy over the head with it. I didn't want to risk being more heavily injured, so I was cautious. Julia quickly dispatched her man. Then we snuck up on the two on the balcony. We signaled to all the guards, as well as the citizens, that there was a revolution. We tipped the guards over, and they screamed as they hit the floor. They landed with a crack that reminded me all too much of what happened to Alex. The guards started to rush to the castle, but the guards falling off the tower had signaled the twins and Phillip. All the guards had left the wall, so Ari was going to flank them. But only a few guards made it to the tower. Phillip and Arianne rained arrows, and if the guards weren't killed by the arrow, the explosion certainly did. Only 10 guards made it up the tower. Me and Julia started to fight them. They were terrible fighters, quickly stabbed or fatally wounded. Ari didn't make it up before we were done. He frowned and said, "Why didn't you leave one for me?"

I sat at the elegant table, Julia to my right, Ari to my left. Phillip and Arianne were also there. We were celebrating our easy victory. We toasted, to all of us. Then, we heard a boom, and the ground shook. For some reason, the image of an hourglass with all its sand on the bottom flashed into my head. Then I realized. Today was the day of the apocalypse. Everyone else sat dumbstruck, but I ran to the balcony, and looked down. Even though it was day, it was dark out. There were clouds, purple clouds, swirling. It was almost entirely dark. There was an earthquake, and I grew nervous. Then, I saw it. It was coming, and fast. And it would destroy us, if we didn't stop it. It.. Was...

Chapter 24: Cloudy with a chance of obsidian.

It was rising out of the ground. In front of the castle, a strange black material formed a square on the ground. There was a strange, purple glowing light inside it. I looked at it in amazement. All my friends came up behind me. We all gaped at the strange portal. Then, quick as the portal had appeared, monsters began to flow out of it. I pushed away from my friends, and ran to the bottom of the castle. I shouted for everyone to get inside the castle, onto the second floor. It was the safest place. Or at least, it was. The earth shook once more, and the second floor crumbled onto the first. Luckily, no one got hurt. But it destroyed two usable floors. And if the earth was so shaky, then the third floor couldn't be safe. So I led everyone down stairs, into me, Julia and Phillip's room. When I got back to the ground, my friends were all waiting, their weapons drawn. I smiled at them, and we charged outside. Arianne and Phillip rained their arrows, taking out the monsters. Me, Julia and Ari all slashed and hacked, but neither us nor the monsters made progress. "This isn't working!" I shouted, over the fighting. That's when someone came to our rescue.
A hooded figure jumped onto the castle walls. From there, they threw dynamite at the portal. But when the dynamite blew up, the portal didn't. He hung his head, then suddenly grew excited. He started throwing things at the portal. Dirt, rocks, wood, anything he had. He eventually blocked off the portal. Then, using a diamond pick he had, he took one obsidian block, and the portal broke. It stopped generating the light. We all high-fived. We then looked at the hooded figure. "Who are you?" I asked. He didn't respond. Then he said, "I'm just a fellow kid. My name's Carter." He took off the hood of his robe, and then took the robe off. It was a boy my age. He was rather tall, a bit shorter than me though. He had blonde curly hair. He had a small tan. But you couldn't tell easily. The whole world was bathed in purple light. But that was when the second wave came.

The monsters were approaching from every direction. The creepers would blow a hole in the wall, and zombies and spiders and skeletons would flood in. Soon, creepers would exploding in every direction. The wall was coming down around us. Then, the creepers got to the castle. They started to blow it up, and after a while, the castle crumbled. It couldn't support itself. While this was bad, it did keep the townspeople safe.

We all drew our weapons once more. We started fighting, making our way to the rubble. Carter helped us. We fought our way to the castle, when something worse happened. We'd fought our way there, slashing every which way, keeping creepers a good distance away, dodging skeleton arrows, slashing at zombies, and cutting the spiders legs off. We fought hard, and long. But then, we were punished. A portal rose out of the rubble of the castle. But nothing spewed out of it. We all watched it, as we fought. But we started to get overwhelmed, as if we weren't already. I told everyone to get into the portal. So Julia, Ari, Arianne, Phillip, and Carter all ran into the portal, to wherever it would lead. I was about to go in, when suddenly everything stopped. Including me. Creepers stopped, mid-hiss, but didn't explode. Zombies froze in mid-air, mid-pounce. Skeletons froze, their arrows floating. Then, out of the portal, walked Notch. I instantly recognized him. I wanted to say hello, but only my eyes were moving right now.

"Listen, Alex. You're getting close to stopping the apocalypse. I would love to help you, but for an immortal being such as myself, that's a great offense. The galaxy would get mad at me, strange as it sounds. It would get mad, and no matter what I do, I can't hide from it, or stop it. But about the apocalypse... You and your friends will be gone in there a long time. Time there is accelerated from here, which is why the monsters bred so much. You must be careful. There are new enemies there, as well. And the terrain is much different. Sadly, I have no power in that dimension. So I give you this, hoping it will help you."
He summoned a sword, made of a fine material. The handle was diamond, with a leather grip. The blade was pure obsidian, refined to be harder and sharper. Down the center was a strip of diamond. It looked beautiful, and deadly.
"The blade is obsidian, refined, obviously. You know how strong obsidian is. And the diamond handle will never break. The leather is obviously a grip, but this is enchanted. You will never let go of your sword unintentionally. As for the diamond strip on the blade. That is not just decoration. That, is an enchanted diamond crystal. If you call on its powers, you yourself will be made entirely out of diamonds. You will still be mobile, but you will be stronger than ever. Faster, than ever. And you will be impossible to kill. You can't be maimed, cut, or hit by an arrow. Not even being crushed will make you die. But, it has a repercussion. It draws it's magic from your own lifesource. When you exit diamond state, you will be unconscious, or on the verge of it. So be careful when you use it. Here." He replaced the sword I was holding with the new obsidian one. Then, time unfroze. I continued to strike the monsters down, defeating them much easier. Then, I jumped through the portal myself.

~~~~~

I was spat out of a portal, and I saw my friends. They were standing on what appeared to be a balcony. It was really just a cave in the side of a mountain. Alex looked around at his new surroundings. He was standing on what appeared to be a mixture of both dirt and tiny rocks. Except these rocks and dirt were stained red, blood red. He looked around. The only light sources were the pools of lava all around, and the strange material that appeared to be a glowing stone. But it wasn't the strange way that there was a roof made out of the strange stone, or that there was lava, or the way the land was formed. The reason all of us were gaping at the new world, was because there were monsters everywhere. There was an amazing amount of them. They were all casually walking around. Then, Julia saw something substantial. She saw a portal. For some reason, all the monsters near it were going into it. They realized that all those monsters were going into their world. Julia began to cry at the sheer numbers entering their new world. I started to comfort her. Then, Ari pointed something else out. He noticed a new monster; it was a strange mutated pig. It stood on two feet, like a human, and had the same anatomy, but looked more like a pig. We all sat there, wondering what would become of us. We couldn't return to our world until we dealt with this threat. But there were so many monsters. It seemed impossible. We sat there, and tried to enjoy what seemed like our last moments. We all slowly fell asleep.

Chapter 25: Haters Gonna Hate, Creepers Gonna Creep, Zombies gonna Kill.

All of the kids in the group woke up. They were still in the Nether. How much time had passed, none of them knew. But they wanted to get started killing the beasts. They saw the army, still wandering around, entering the portal, burning in lava, and fighting each other. The kids all started to plan their attack. It had been decided that Alex would go first, since he was the best fighter. Julia would follow, and then Ari. Phillip and Arianne would be using their bows again, as usual. Carter wouldn't be helping anytime soon. He had vanished mysteriously. No one knew where he went.
Arianne and Phillip fired a few good shots at the monsters. They spared their ammo, because they only had so much of it left. They took some of the TNT off some arrows, so they could reuse the arrows, and the TNT was now short distance. The TNT blew up, clearing a landing place for Alex and everyone. Alex slid down the side of their mini-mountain, and landed at the bottom. He held up his hand to Julia, signaling not to come down. She stopped, and looked at Ari, as if to ask, 'What's he doing?'

Alex stood there, slashing a few monsters. After a big crowd appeared, he activated his sword's power. He turned into a diamond being. The power in the obsidian sword slowly spread through Alex's body. His hand turned into diamond, then his arm, and soon he was entirely diamond. He could feel the monsters hitting him, and scratching him, but it was not bothering him. He felt it, but it wasn't pain. He noticed that his obsidian sword had become the mere size of a dagger. But because he was diamond, he had no worries for getting close. He stabbed a spider in front of him, then spun around and stabbed a zombie behind him. He lunged to the side, stabbed another zombie. He continued stabbing the creatures. He'd killed a good amount of them, but they kept coming. Soon, his diamond skin turned back into flesh. It was slow at first, just small patches of skin. But when his whole right arm was skin, he knew it was time to run. He motioned for Julia to come down and help him up, but she was too late. By the time she'd slid down, Alex was almost entirely flesh. The monsters had started to close back in, but Alex tried to climb up, assisted by Julia. But the sideffects of his ability kicked in there and then. He promptly fainted, and fell to the ground. Julia jumped down to protect him, and Ari followed.

Phillip and Arianne provided covering fire. They got all the monsters that Julia or Ari would miss. But it soon ended. They ran out of regular arrows, leaving Ari and Julia alone. Arianne looked at Phillip and said, "I don't know about you, but I'm going down there." She slid down, and landed near Alex. She watched Julia and Ari, making sure no monsters got through. Phillip stayed on the mountain. ~I'm too weak for that... No one would be helped if I went down.~ He thought. But then he got an idea. He started to focus on all the arrows littered about.

Arianne noticed the arrow near her shaking. It wasn't an earthquake, it was simply shaking. Then, it was yanked out of the ground by some unknown force. She saw dozens of arrows yanked out of what seemed like years worth of dirt. The arrows all floated, and soon floated up to Phillip. He suddenly had a stockpile, big enough to last the two of them a good 150 shots each. Some of the arrows were old, some had obsidian tips, and some had metal shafts. The variety was amazing.

Phillip tossed down a couple of arrows for Arianne, and then started to open fire. He didn't aim for specific monsters, just groups of them. He let loose, and the monsters started dropping like dominoes. He even set off a creeper, which blew up and cut off a good amount of monsters with lava. Julia gave him a thumbs up, and went back to fighting the never ending waves of monsters. Just when they began to get overwhelmed, Alex slowly stirred. "Wuh... Where are we?" He asked. He looked around, and snapped awake when he saw where he was. He slowly stood up, losing his balance for a moment. He realized what was going on and grabbed his sword. "Guys, spread out a little!" He said. They all spread out, and took on a little bit less monsters each. Alex stabbed at monsters, killing them nearly instantly with the hard rock. Julia had two smaller swords, and she was hacking away, taking down the monsters fast. Ari had a bit more of a battle axe. He swung it through the crowd, taking out vast numbers at once. Together, with Phillip and Arianne's supporting fire, they quickly demolished the monsters in the area. They looked around; there were still other islands with more monsters on them. They all thought. "You guys think there are portals on those islands?" Ari asked. We all stood there, looking at the monsters roaming the various islands. Alex stood there, watching.

Everyone started to walk away from the lavas edge, back to where it was certainly safe. Alex kept standing there. Suddenly, everything stopped again. Including himself. He knew what was happening. Suddenly, in a flash of light, Notch was before him.

"Good job, Alex. You and you're friends have defeated all the monsters on this, eh... Island, let's say. But you know that there are more monsters. You want to know how to defeat hem, correct? Well, here's a secret. All these monsters? Not supposed to be here. Spiders, zombies, skeletons, those greenie meanies? Not supposed to be here. Normally, the heat here would kill them. But there's a crystal here. It's somewhere, hidden in an island. I can't tell you which island exactly, but here's a hint. The island is the gateway, leading to the worlds of this dimension. On the island of gates, you will find your goal. When, or if, you find the crystal, I'll help you once more."

And time resumed itself. I wondered what he'd meant. "The island is a gateway, leading to the worlds of this dimension." I said out loud. Julia heard me, and asked me what I'd said. I told her that I knew how to defeat most of the monsters here. I told her that the creepers, or 'greenie meanies,' as Notch called them, the zombies, spiders and skeletons, were not native here. That the only thing keeping them alive was a crystal. I told her the hint Notch had told me. Everyone started to think what it meant. We all fell asleep around a glowing block, thinking what the hint meant.

Chapter 26: Right Under our Noses.

We had all woken up. We were all eating some of the rations we had brought along. The strange rock in front of us kept glowing. We had all been thinking about it. What island was the 'gateway' to all worlds? We gave up thinking and continued on. We circled around our little isle, looking for an easy way off. That was when it hit us.
On the other side, there were more portals. Roughly 5 of them. We looked at all of them. "I'll look through them, see where they all lead." Alex said. He went over to each one of them. He stuck his head through, to see where they all lead. One lead to a prospering world, filled with flying cars, robots, floating islands... It was rather amazing. But Alex wasn't about to go. So he went to the next portal. It was a portal to a world full of strange animals, none of which seemed very friendly. Alex viewed the next portal. He saw John's castle. He could tell it was John's. He saw John fighting, alongside his army, killing the massive amounts of monsters attempting to defeat him. In the next portal, there wasn't anything. It seemed to lead to an empty space. In the last portal, he became slightly shocked. It was his home world. He saw his mother, crying over what used to be his hospital bed. Now it was empty, and she was absolutely bawling. Alex withdrew from the portal with a frown. He was glad it was the last portal. He didn't want to see anything worse.

"Guys... I think this is the gateway to different worlds in our dimension. This is the gateway. And if it is in fact under the gateway, then we gotta go... Down." The last words were spoken dramatically. None of us wanted to go down, but we had no choice. We had to stop the monsters. I took out my diamond pickaxe, and started to mine away the hellish looking rock. I mined for a little, until I came across a large cavern. It was dug into the center of the island. It was a clever hiding spot, as no one would think that the crystal they wanted to destroy was underneath them. We ventured into the castle, and I looked down the mine shaft that had been dug. It was not the neatest thing, but the depth was immense and intimidating. Arianne got slightly nervous when she saw the drop, and lost her balance. Ari caught her, and they slowly regained their balance. In the middle of the shaft, there was a staircase going down. I turned around to face everyone. "Guys... Do we really want to do this? Who knows what's down there. We will probably not make it back that safely, or easily. Are we going through with this?" Alex asked. Everyone nodded yes.

And so began the descent into the deepest pits of the Nether.

Chapter 27: The Deeper, the Deadlier.

We had all been traveling for a long time. Or at least, it felt like it. We'd gone down quite a bit. Arianne had almost fallen off multiple times. We could no longer see the top, nor the bottom. However, we soon saw a blue light at the bottom. Based off of its brightness and size, we guessed it wasn't that far away anymore. And we were right. In what felt like a few minutes, we were at the bottom. We all had the same guess about what the blue light was- the crystal keeping the monsters here alive. We kept walking, until we were almost at the bottom. But then, we encountered a problem. When we got to the bottom, the bottom wasn't there. There was a floor below our stairs, but our staircase didn't connect to it- we all had the same guess as to why this was as well. The arrows in the remaining stairs, the small craters, and the scratches along the walls gave it away. The bottom of the staircase was filled with creepers, zombies, skeletons, and pigmen alike. We all tried to come up with an idea, but the idea of throwing a few sticks of TNT down there won. So we took out the TNT, the flint and steel, and lit a few sticks. We tossed them down, spreading them out, and the resulting explosions destroyed all but one monster, which I quickly dispatched after landing down the stairs. "Come down, guys." He said.
We sat down and rested for a little longer. We didn't know what awaited us inside the door, and we didn't want to risk anything.

After we rested for a while, we decided it was time to attack. We opened the grand doors that stood in front of us. They were made of oak and redwood trees. How they got wood down here, we couldn't figure out. We walked into the grand room before us. It was elegantly carved, with only a few stalactites remaining. There was a red carpet going through the center. There were pillars. It all led to the blue crystal that had been giving off the light. But surrounding it, was a giant crowd of monsters. "Alright guys. Let's make this easy. Just shoot some sticks of TNT at the crystal and make sure to hit some monsters as well. Do this right and we can be home before we know it." I said. And they did do it right. The monsters were all killed. But the crystal, however, remained unscathed.

We all walked up to it. It didn't seem to break easy. I took out my sword and tried breaking it that way. I stabbed it, and slashed it, and jabbed it. But nothing worked. We all looked at each other, confused. I told everyone to back up, in case something weird happened. I tried pushing the crystal out of it's strange magnetic hold in the air. It started to move, slowly, and it's light began to fade. The crystal was coming loose, and would break.

But it never did. I had almost pushed it out, when I was thrown away by a mysterious force.

Chapter 28: Notch's Noble Name.

I was thrown away, like a little ant by some greater, more mysterious force. I felt puny, and weak. I looked to see what had hit me. Standing a few feet away from the crystal, was a hooded figure. The figure's entire body was covered. The only viewable feature was the figures mouth. Her hands had gloves, and her cloak covered her entire body. But the mouth was distinctively obvious. The lips were red, as though covered with lipstick. I knew at once that this character was a female. I chose to call her Lady, for the fact that she's female, appears old, and we didn't know her name.
I suddenly grew angry at Lady. I hadn't noticed it before, but all my friends were on the ground, seemingly unconscious. Even though they were unconscious, their faces were distorted in pain. The anger inside me grew rapidly, and not thinking, I charged her. I didn't have a plan or anything, I had just charged her out of anger. I struck her, but she rose a shield made of some transparent material. I struck the shield, but I was simply thrown back with my own force. I tried to get up, and looked her in the face. She was smiling. "Who are you?" I asked. She simply chuckled, and I became tortured by some mysterious force. I didn't know what it was, but I suddenly felt like my body was on fire. I fell to the ground, screaming. I fought the pain, as best I could. I began to see splotches in my eyes. I fought to stay conscious, but I couldn't.

~~~~~

I woke up tied to one of the columns around the room. My friends remained unconscious, but they were also tied up. I tried to get out of the bonds, but it wasn't working. I looked around for something to help, but there was nothing in my reach. I gave up hope, when Lady appeared in front of me. Her voice seemed feminine. It sounded too sweet for what seemed to be an evil villain. "Hello, Alex. I know why your here. You want to destroy my great crystal. The one that keeps spawning my little demons. Did you also know that it holds my power? As long as we stay in this room, I am undefeatable. But, I grow bored down here. So I will give you a chance to defeat me. I can create an obstacle course out of this room. That is what I shall do. Your friends shall stay where they are. I will not interfere. You shall receive everything you entered this room with. However, I advise that you hurry. Your friends appear to be, ah, waking up." She said. There was something about the way she said it that made me nervous. But then, in a flash. I was in the front of the room, where the entrance was now a wall. I had my sword, and my armor. I thought that this would be easy, Until I took a step forward. The ground started to crack. There seemed to be a distinctive pattern in the cracks. I thought that perhaps I just shouldn't step on them, but I was proven wrong. The ground that wasn't supported began to sink. I felt a sudden burst of heat.
The ground fell into the lava. It formed a distinctive path of small islands, and long, narrow pathways. I thought that this would be the end of the transformation, but I was wrong. My friends began to stir, and I saw Julia looking at something. In front of me, a zombie was closing in. I kicked it back, and cut its upper body off. I kicked the halves into the newly formed pools of lava. I looked back at Julia, and saw that she was still supported on a small rock island. I continued on the path. Suddenly, a skeleton came out of the lava. It was covered in lava, and would burn on the touch. I didn't know that then, though. I saw it drawing an arrow, so I kicked it back into the lava. This didn't kill it, only stopped it. But it had burned through my foot. I screamed in pain. I didn't know how I would continue, because my foot burned. I was almost halfway there, but that wasn't enough distance for my foot to make it. I thought, and decided to jump along. It was hard, but it was the only way.

I soon came to monster I had not seen before. It was floating in air, with tentacles. I saw it preparing to attack, so I raised my sword in defense. But then, it spat out a rock at me. I didn't know what the rock was, so I simply dodged to the side. But then, the rock hit the small rock I was on, and the force almost threw me off. I lost my balance, and was about to fall into the lava. I saw my life flash before me. I had gone plenty of times before, but that was reason to think I wasn't about to come back. I simply let myself fall backwards, when I remembered. I had the sword. The obsidian sword with the power. I focused my energy at the last second, and I turned to diamond as I splashed into the lava. It absorbed me, and I felt the heat against my sparkling skin. I heard Lady laughing from above. She thought I had died. I took advantage of this. I began to swim in the direction I knew was the way to the crystal. I swam through the lava, it feeling like nothing more than a hot tub to me. I rose my head above the surface. I looked around, and climbed onto the rock near me. I got to the top, and was a few feet away from the crystal. Just one jump. But I became distracted by the cries and coughs of my friends. I saw my friends crying for me, sad that I'd fallen into lava. But then, they all started coughing. Blood began to stream out of their mouths. They began to grow cuts along their body. I knew what was happening, and knew I had to hurry. I jumped across the pit, and using my new diamond strength, started pushing the crystal. I pushed, and it fell into the lava. It fell off of its magical stand, and rolled into the lava. It began to melt, and the magic flowing from it to Lady was viewable through my diamond eyes. She began to spasm, now filled with her power.

I jumped from rock to rock, and soon came to the one she was on. She was on the floor, in shock. She hadn't felt the magic actually coursing through her blood in forever. The experience came as a shock to her. She laid on the ground. I took the opportunity. I lifted the hood off of her face.

I gasped. I couldn't believe what I saw.

Chapter 29: Men sure can pick 'em.

The face under the hood was Notch's wife. I tried to remember what her name was. Ez, I think he'd said? I just kneeled next to her, in shock. Notch's wife... She wasn't dead. She was alive. She hadn't died. She'd been here to whole time. Breeding monsters. I just kneeled there, in shock, when she regained consciousness. She took her opportunity. She froze my friends around me, and everything else, much like Notch had. I could still move, but didn't let her know.
"Listen, Alex. You've most likely guessed who I am. I am in fact Ez, Notch's wife. I know you thought I was dead. But I wasn't. Listen... I'm going to give you a choice. You have a lot of power. I have a lot of power. I could make those monsters follow you, I could give you invincibility. You could have power. All the power in the world, and all you have to do, is kill one of your friends. I'm going to give you a moment to decide." She said. She flew into the air and hovered there. ~What? But I couldn't. That would be... I could never live it down. I would live out my never-ending life tortured by the memory. All my friends would hate me, as if being evil weren't enough. But I realized something. I took out Notch's diary, unaware that I'd had it this whole time. It seemed he was watching me again.

'Alex, I know you won't have much time. So to help you quickly, I'm going to tell you something I hadn't before. The only way to kill us is to use our own weapon. I didn't tell you because I didn't know if I could trust you. Please, use this knowledge for good.'

I could tell he'd been watching me. I thanked him silently, hoping he could somehow hear it. I stood, and answered her question. "I'll do it." I said. She slowly formed a smile on her face. "Wonderful! Just wonderful! And don't worry, I can keep all your other friends safe. They won't know that Julia has died. I'll pu-" But I interrupted her. "Wait. Julia? You said 'a' friend. Not Julia." I stared her down. "Yes, but to truly test your loyalty, I've decided you must kill your true love. To be truly worthy, one must sacrifice anything." I looked at Julia, her face and it's features. She was frozen in time, her face with no particular expression on it. Just a simple look. It was beautiful. I didn't know how I would will myself to kill her.

A dagger flew down, and started floating in front of my face. I looked at it. It was made of diamond, and seemed to be glowing. I looked at Ez. "That's my own dagger. I want you to kill her with it. It shall make me stronger, her blood on the blade. And since you shall be holding it, you will also become stronger. Now take it, and end her life." I reluctantly took the dagger, trying to hide the tears coming out of my eyes. I slowly walked towards Julia's unmoving body. She just stood there, tied up, her neutral expression making me even more guilty. I began crying, not trying to hide it. There was anger mixed with it. I rose my arm, preparing to strike, and growled as I struck. My face was covered in tears, and anger was what was showing.

I struck Julia.

Chapter 30: I regret nothing.

But hit the wall. I intentionally did it. I couldn't kill the love of my life, and suffer with that, even for invincibility and power. I turned around. I took the dagger out of the wall and put it in my belt. I stared at Ez, a fire in my eyes. She'd wanted me to kill my love. Now that she'd given me her dagger, I was going to kill her. I ran straight at her, screaming. My friends remained frozen in time. I rose my sword, and struck. But the coward rose another wall. This time, I flew and crashed into a column. The force was terribly painful, and I almost blacked out. But thankfully, I was able to watch what would happen next.
I saw a blue flash, and Notch appeared in front of me. Ez gasped. Notch was standing there, holding his staff. He looked angry for the first time. The following battle was certainly going to be amazing. Notch rose his staff, and a burst of blue light came out of it. Ez slapped the ball away and it dissipated on the wall it hit. I watched them battle it out, seeing who had the better spells. Ez continued to deflect all of Notch's spells. Then she fought back. She threw a ball of red energy at Notch. It hit him square in the chest. I thought he would be down. But instead, he looked stronger, while Ez began to look weaker. I didn't know what was going on, but Notch could tell he was winning. "Face it Ez. I'm stronger." He said. He threw three balls of energy. Two, Ez blocked, but the third one hit. It confused me, why Ez suddenly grew weaker still instead of growing stronger like Notch had. But I watched as she fell to a knee. "Ez, why did you lie to me? I thought you were dead. I grieved for months. Why did you betray me?" He asked. She started to cry. "I betrayed you because I loved you. I was evil, from the moment we met, till now. I was never good, I just pretended because I loved you. But the evil side of me took over and now... Here we are. I paid someone to kill me with a dagger that looked to be mine. But it wasn't, not really, so I survived with ease." She began to bawl. I watched the scene. An angry husband, broken and betrayed. A fiendish wife, crying at her own evil deeds. It was quite a scene. But then Ez stood up.

The battle continued. Ez threw an energy ball at Notch. He jumped, did a triple-backflip, and threw three energy balls in midair. Ez fired her own energy balls, which hit Notch's. For some reason, they floated there, two opposite energies fused. Notch made the first move. He flew forward and slapped two of them, and they flew at Ez. She deflected one back to Notch, and the other one flew by her. But it didn't stop at the wall, it continued bouncing around the room, a ball not affected by Newtonian physics. Notch dodged the energy, and threw the last one at Ez. They co

ntinued battling it out this way. Notch would throw one at Ez, who would deflect it. It would bounce around until Notch caught it again. Then the tides turned. Notch had all three of them, and using his own power, he infused them with each other. He created one, giant ball of energy, and threw it at Ez. She stood there, flabbergasted, as the giant ball of energy flew straight at her.

And then it hit.

Chapter 31: And it all comes down.

Ez tried to deflect the ball of energy, but it didn't work. She was hit full on, and she was thrown to a column. Instead of the energy bouncing off of her, it went into her. It seemed to cause her pain. She sat there, spasming, on the column. I watched, still in pain, on my column. Notch frowned and turned to me. And what happened next would ensure I could never live a normal life.
"Alex... I have only spoken to you few times in person. Once to convince you to come here and fight. Once to give you a weapon. Now, I am giving you a gift. A gift most probably the best one you will ever receive. You can choose to decline it, but I advise you don't." He said. I looked at him with curiosity, and he simply answered the question going through my head. "Your gift? Well. Haven't you ever thought, in your time here, that it would be great to be a wizard, like me? Well, your close to right. Except that I was shunned. My culture shunned me, and so I created my own world. Ez came with me. But... It is against galactic rules for a wizard to kill another wizard. Even so, I couldn't kill Ez. Even if she was evil. I think you know what I'm asking."

I did. He wanted me to take the dagger in my hand, and kill Ez with it. But... I didn't think I could. I've killed before, but not like this. Not in cold blood. But... To be a wizard. To be like Notch. The temptation took me. I stood up, despite the pain, and began to walk towards Ez. She was unconscious now. I walked over to her, clutching my side. I think I'd broken a rib.

I came to Ez. She looked peaceful, and it was hard to believe that she was evil. But I knew she was. I took the dagger from my belt and stared at her. If I stabbed her, she would die, and I would get her powers. The thought was scary, as tempting as it was. I turned to face Notch. "But, what about my friends? We're still frozen in time. They won't know, only that I defeated Ez. They won't know I'm a wizard. Would I be allowed to tell them?" I asked. Notch thought before answering. "No. If they manage to find out on their own, then it's okay. But... No, you can't just tell them." I grew saddened. I turned back to Ez. I took the dagger from my belt, rose my hand, and struck. Then, it all went black. The last thing I saw was Notch smiling at me, as he disappeared.

~~~~~

I woke up on the upside of the Gateway to the Worlds. I looked around me. My friends were all around me, fine. We were around a fire. Julia was the first to notice me wake up. "Oh, Alex!" She said. She helped me sit up. "Alex! We were worried about you!" She said. "Wait," I said, "What happened?"
Julia explained their point of view to me. They had seen me try to break the crystal. But then, around the point when me and Ez began battling, they suddenly became attached to the columns. Then, the ground was suddenly a bunch of islands in a pit of lava. Then, they were unattached from their columns, and the ground was back. They saw Ez, with the dagger in her stomach, and me, unconscious on the floor. They hadn't seen Notch. They thought I'd become injured, so they began to leave. After they were halfway up the steps, they heard the room cave in. I thought about how they'd missed so much. Notch, saving us. Me, battling it out. Me becoming a wizard.

"Wait, Alex, how long... Since when have you had blue eyes?" Julia asked, her face twisted with curiosity. She kept staring at my eyes. "I don't know. I haven't looked in a mirror since the last time I was brought back." He said. I tried to hide the fact that I was a wizard, but Julia made it hard. After we'd all rested, we decided to go home. We went to the other side of the island, and went through our own portal.

I gasped.

Chapter 32: Ruins of our Mind.

When we came back, the world we were greeted by was more a hell than the one we'd left. It was almost disgusting. We had exited through the same portal as we had entered, but this time, the castle had completely collapsed. As had the city around us. I thought about the people we had left. I walked out of the pile of ruins scattered, and observed the destruction. Houses were blown to bits. The wall was standing in few places. There were a couple of skeletons, human skeletons, scattered around. We looked at some of them. I recognized one to be Carter, the boy who'd saved us. I shuddered at the thought. All around us, there was death and destruction. Ari, Arianne, Julia, little Phillip, me, we were all stuck. We had left, and we were gone... Who knows how long? The monsters had all died off. There was creeper gunpowder lying around, skeleton's arrows, dead zombies, spider's thread. It was terrible.
As my friends walked around, looking for any possible survivors, or useful items, I went back to my old bunker. I tried to dig through the rubble, to find the entrance. After a moment, I found it. I walked down the steps, the stone becoming mossy. I entered the hallway, and was greeted by everyone's fate. There were skeletons lying around, more human skeletons. I made my way through them, trying not to be disrespectful of the dead. I managed to get into my room. There were few skeletons in here, and I was glad. I got a few items from my chest, such as wood, stone, food, and equipment. I grabbed the disc out of my jukebox, as well. I couldn't take the jukebox, it was too big. So I took the disc.

Inside of Julia's room, I gathered more equipment for all. I also grabbed the necklace I'd made for her. I put a spell on it, without anyone knowing, both as a test of my powers, and to keep Julia happy and safe. It was like a tracking charm; I could track the necklace, and the necklace would always end up with Julia. I would always be able to follow her and keep her safe.

I walked up the steps with the equipment and supplies. I found a clear spot on the ground, and put everything down. "Alright then, guys. This place is... It's not coming back. It shall remain like this forever, until someone comes and rebuilds it or, whatever happens. This is all we have; a few diamonds, three diamond picks, a diamond shovel, two diamond picks, and a diamond hoe. We also have some iron and leather armor for everyone. And for Julia," I said, placing it around her neck, "The necklace I made. Enjoy it, and let it keep you safe."

We began to travel away from the ruins. They were a mess; uninhabitable, dangerous, and a terrible reminder of what had happened. We walked away from the ruins. I told the others to continue, and I tested my powers once more. I summoned my strength, and pulled off an amazing feat. In an attempt to hide our existence from others, I lifted the ground. You could see a sphere of colored energy surrounding it. The ball lifted into the air, and the objects inside the mixture became even more mixed. The ball lowered itself softly, and it began to look like no one had ever been there. If you started digging there, well, that was a different story.

I caught up to my friends, as we headed off.

Chapter 33: Douche is dead.

We had been traveling for a few hours. We had no exact direction, as there was destruction everywhere. Creeper craters, skeleton arrows... Everywhere. It was terrible. We didn't want to settle somewhere with reminders of what had happened. We continued to travel, and we soon came to more ruins. I had an idea what it was.
We stumbled around, trying to figure out where we are. We looked for people, but there only seemed to be signs of life near the destroyed castle. We walked over to it. There were skeletons, all seemingly old. We wondered how long we'd been gone; it almost seemed like years. We looked at some skeletons, and I saw one that was distinctive. The skeleton had a broken rib that was partially healed. The bones themselves were stained with blood. It wore distinctive clothes, but the fact that there were bandages wrapped around some of the bones nearby, it was obvious; John. His army, it had fallen. Just like ours. We had both failed to defend ourselves. But we had tried to survive, and we did. He had fought, and lost. I looked around, to see for anything else, and noticed that the portals had all vanished. It was a relief.

We continued on from John's castle. We were amazed at the destruction one civilization could suffer. I did the same thing to it as I did the last. I let my friends get ahead, while I hid the castle. It was for everyone's good. I mixed up the dirt and rocks like soup, and let the grass grow over it.

We decided to settle for the night. We didn't know whether there would be any monsters, so we all hid in a cave that we boxed up, and lit up. And we stayed there for the night.

Chapter 34: Preparations.

We all woke up when the sun did. We all woke up around then, and one by one, went outside. We all hung around the fire for a little, trying to soak up the recent events. I didn't believe it; In the past, hardly a month, I...
I saved the world, became a wizard, met a great man, got a girlfriend, owned a kingdom, and everything in between. I was amazed that I could do that; a month ago I was hijacking my mom's car, and driving it, illegally. Here I was, a hero.
We soon started to talk about our plans. "We gotta go somewhere. But where?" I asked. I got various responses. Ari said we should go inland; Arianne said we should go closer to the shore. Phillip said we should stay a safe distance in between. I said that we should sail the seas. Julia became the defining factor, seeing as to how most possible options had been taken. She thought, and agreed with me. Then, it was decided. We were going to sail the seas.

We started to build a boat; it had a room for each of us, or at least our groups; Me and Julia would sleep together. Ari and Arianne would sleep together, and Phillip got a smaller room to himself. The sail would power it, and we would have a storage room, as well as a bathroom. It was a fair sized boat; 10 meters by 27; a sizeable width, and a good length.

I set out to build it. We already had a small supply of planks. Julia had gone to get more wood, Ari had gone to help her, Arianne was getting wool, and Phillip was making the sail. We were almost done, and night began to set. Everyone was helping to finish, getting everything on the ship, finishing the top deck, getting the sail tied up. When night struck, we were ready. We watched as the creepers and zombies, the skeletons and spiders all came to watch us go. One creeper attempted to follow. We all watched off the backside. I held the steering wheel, keeping us steady. The creeper followed us, but soon turned back. We all watched it go. We waved to it.

We were going to miss the island. We were going to miss Julans. It had held all of our hopes and dreams, that had all been crushed. It held the only sign of known life. It had housed us and protected us for so long. Now, we were leaving it. We were headed somewhere, we didn't know where. We were going off to sail the unnumbered seas. Would we come back? Probably not. Would we find somewhere else to stay? Who knew.

I almost started crying as we went. I'd developed an attachment. I waved good-bye to the island. But then I began to wonder...

What had happened that week I'd been gone?

Epilogue

I left a small book that had highlighted our travels. It included everything I knew. I hadn't told anyone about it, except that I wanted to leave something. I had contacted Notch and figured out how to enchant the book like he did. I enchanted it, and left it in a safe place. But, by some chance for fate, it would come back to bite me in the butt...

The book remained wedged between two stones for so long, but alas, stones aren't the best bookshelves. The book became dislodged by the wind one day. Later, a creeper found it. This creeper had wandered around, until he soon came to something he'd thought was a human. He'd started to hiss, but when he realized it was wood, it was too late. He exploded, creating a crater in the ground, and throwing the book into the water. However, it had landed on one of the pieces of wood. It had gotten stuck between two pieces, and the two pieces began to float away from the island.
The pieces floated for a long time. They went through storms, through giant waves, through numerous fish attacks. Until one day, a fish got lucky. He managed to get it dislodged, but he hadn't noticed it. He had sum around, and eventually it had fallen off. Only to fall onto another fish. Sadly, this fish was gullible. The fish had grabbed the book in his mouth, when he spotted a shrimp. It was simply floating there. He swam over to take a bite, when he was yanked out of the water. The book went with him. The curious fisherman that had caught the fish took the book, and let the fish go. While the fish had a sigh of relief, the fisherman began to read. He took the book straight to the Monarch.

The Monarch read the story, and an evil plan grew in his mind. Granted, one part was under nature's control, but he knew it would soon happen. He published the story, and Alex became praised as a hero. Julia was praised as a queen. Phillip and Ari, and Arianne were all praised as well. However, only the Monarch knew this to be a true story. For when he'd written the word, 'Greetings.' In it, the word, 'Hello there!' Had appeared.

~~~~~
THE END