Chapter 2: The Fall of Blackrock Stronghold

"Oh, my goodness! Oh, my heavens! Oh, my days!" The cries of fear echoed throughout Blackrock Stronghold. Zoeya ran for her life up the stairs from the caverns, then up the wooden ladder and into the castle's corridors. Her shoes clattered upon the marble floor, leaving skid marks at each turning. An eerie, azure-blue glow warmed the air behind her, casting strange, twisted shadows in her path. As she raced along the main corridor leading to all the rooms, what chased her became apparent: evil, sapient blue fire pursued Zoeya, creating the glow and melting the floor. It moved as fast as quicksilver, quickly devouring anything flammable, devouring anything not flammable with slightly less speed. Zoeya just about managed to stay ahead. She had to get away and warn her friends, and hopefully manage not to die a long, slow, painful death in the process.

Finally, Zoeya burst through the double doors into the bedroom, where Rythian and Teep sat upon the bed with a third of an omelette sitting forlornly on a plate between them.

"I'm afraid you took too long, Zoeya, so we had our shares of the omelette, and-" began Rythian, but Zoeya paid him no heed. She moved a bookcase in front of the doors, put a vase of flowers on the bookcase, took a few seconds to get her breath back, and then spoke.

"We're all in terrible danger," she said. "There's some blue fire burning its way through the castle, up from the caverns, and a Destroyer of Worlds called… um… Eheolthjase, or something."

"A Destroyer of Worlds?" repeated Rythian.

"Yes, and its fire is destroying the castle as we speak, so perhaps we should get to safety?" suggested Zoeya.

"I need to see this for myself. Excuse me," said Rythian, removing the bookcase and opening the doors.

"NO!" cried Zoeya, but it was too late. The fire poured into the room, a maelstrom of bright blue conflagration, burning skin and clothes, devouring the carpet, and overwhelming the magical barriers meant to prevent such things from approaching. The doors were flung back against the walls, almost tearing Rythian's arm off with their speed. A couple of arrows flew into the bright blue blaze, fired by Teep, but they simply burnt up.

"Aaaargh! Rythian!" shouted Zoeya, over the noise of the blaze.

"Shut the doors! Shut the doors!" shouted Rythian. He grasped a door and pushed it back against the fire. Zoeya shoved the other into his grasp, and he held them shut.

"Fall back to the magic room! Quick!" ordered Rythian.

"But what about you?" asked Zoeya.

"Go!"

Zoeya stared at him, and at the buckling doors, and into the raging maelstrom behind them. He was unarmed, and the fire would tear through him like an angry cat through a paper curtain.

"I'm not leaving you, Rythian. Not for love nor money," said Zoeya defiantly.

"I'll be fine, Zoeya. Get to safety."

Zoeya stared into his fiery amethyst eyes, seeing the courage shining within. He was certain he could hold off the inferno, but could he really? All she could do was hope, and do the best she could at her own task

"Y-you're the bravest man I ever met," Zoeya said, blinking back tears.

"For pity's sake, just go!" replied Rythian, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

Zoeya and Teep ran out through the other doors, along straight, torch-lit corridors and through various rooms, until they came at last to the magic room. It was quite a sight. Plinths of beautiful, square-cut blue rock supported powerful arcane devices, and stalactites of rich reddish-pink stuff reached down the walls. Zoeya spent a few moments rummaging in a black metal chest, eventually pulling out two Interdiction Torches, small yellow rods tipped with some bits of pulsating green energy. She placed them in front of the doors to the room, one on each side. They would stop the fire from coming near, as well as any other inimical forces. Zoeya turned around to see that Teep had taken out a suit of fancy red armour, a pickaxe with a bright blue handle and a black head made from dark matter, and a cream-coloured ring inset with a magenta orb. He had laid them out for maximum accessibility, and also got himself a short sword with a shiny green blade, made from solid emerald.

"Thanks, Teep," replied Zoeya. Teep grinned at her, which, what with all his teeth, was actually quite an unnerving sight. Zoeya put on the suit of armour (which was indestructible, being made from red matter, which was an even better form of dark matter), slipped the ring (which gave her the power of flight) over her finger and hung the pickaxe (which could break through any stone in just a few milliseconds) from her belt, before taking a laser gun from the chest and holstering it next to her pickaxe. Rythian wouldn't like her using it, but needs must…

While this was going on, Rythian was most definitely not having a good time. Being an all-powerful alchemist and mage, he had faced a great deal of enemies in his time, but never one like the fire. He was by no means helpless, though. Focusing his power through his black, rune-covered Ring of Arcana, he doused the blue fires in water, froze the very air around them, blasted them with gale-force winds and even drew all of the oxygen in the air away from them, but it had barely any effect. The water could slow them down a bit, but the fires just kept on coming. By no means defeated, Rythian tried using his Red Morning Star, a magical multi-purpose tool made from red matter. He smashed apart the ground beneath the fires, creating an enormous hole in the floor, which kind of worked. The blue fire could not move over empty spaces, but, horror of horrors, it was crawling along the walls and ceiling!

Fortunately, Rythian had one more trick up his sleeve. Reaching into a small cloth pouch hanging from his shoulder, he pulled out a small, glowing grain of red matter, which he then Transmuted into a wall of solid titanium, nearly a metre thick, completely blocking the corridor. Breathing a sigh of relief, the mighty sorcerer took a moment to lean against a wall and admire his handiwork. Nothing could get past that. …Could it?

With a spring in his step, Rythian strode along the corridor to the magic room. Zoeya immediately ran over and hugged him.

"I thought I was going to lose you, Rythian. You didn't have any armour on, and that fire was horrible!" she said.

"I know, but I've dealt with it. The fire won't get at us any time soon, that's for sure," Rythian reassured her, returning the hug.

"That's wonderful news!" rejoiced Zoeya. "But what are we going to do? Half the castle's still full of fire, and B.A.R.R.Y, and the mines are probably infested by now…"

"We move out," replied Rythian. "We've lived here for a long time, but what with the blue fire, Blackrock Stronghold cannot continue to be our home. Our best bet is to move out, and make sure the fire stays in."

"Stays in? You mean we'll use the stronghold as a prison?" asked Zoeya.

"Yes, while we look for a way to get rid of the fire and the evil creature," confirmed Rythian.

"Okay, but… Aren't there still a few holes in the north tower from when the Ender Dragon attacked us?" Zoeya pointed out.

Rythian gaped at her, realising the truth in her words. "Quick!" he cried. "We haven't a moment to lose." His actions true to his words, he took a suit or armour like Zoeya's from the black chest, put it on, and took out a large pile of black stone bricks, which somehow managed to fit in the palm of his hand.

At full tilt, Rythian ran through the corridors, almost kicking up sparks from the marble floor. He wrenched open the strong metal doors at the entrance to the stronghold, even though they were only meant to open when one pressed a button on the wall, and sprinted around past the farm and the golem enclosures to the north tower.

As Zoeya had said, the north tower was in ruins. It leaned at a sharp angle, the stone bricks barely more than a ragged framework around many enormous holes created a few weeks ago by a ferocious dragon, the Queen of the End. Eerie blue light emanated from within, but thankfully, no fire had yet managed to get out. Wasting no time, Rythian threw some bricks at each hole, where they arranged themselves into new pieces of wall. Breathing a sigh of relief, he turned around to see Teep and Zoeya a long way behind, pointing upwards and making wild gestures. Bemused, Rythian looked up to see the very last thing he wanted to see.

"Oh, no…" he groaned. Blue fire raged over the top of Blackrock Stronghold. Already its mighty black stone buttresses were glowing red hot, the iron railings along the walkways were melting, and the family of swallows nesting on the roof were long gone. There was little smoke, but that was hardly a comfort to Rythian, or to his apprentice, or to their reptilian companion.

"Now what?" asked Zoeya. "We can't stop it now."

Rythian thought for a moment. "Now, we gather all our possessions and find somewhere to recuperate. If possible, I'll get all our valuables. Zoeya, you gather up the golems, take the arrows from the watchtower, and gather all the food from the farm. Teep, come with me and get some books from the reading room. Anything about monsters, magical phenomena, forces of evil… stuff like that. Oh, and the blackboard. We're going to need it. We'll rendezvous by the pool. Move out!"

Dodging nimbly around fragments of the walkway that once connected it to the stronghold, Zoeya rushed over to the watchtower, a tall tower with an effigy of Teep's head at the top doubling as the watching room. Zoeya took a quick look at the wooden ladder leading up to the top, and immediately decided not to bother with it. Instead, she held aloft and Empowered her cream-coloured ring, which glowed, and then pulled her upwards.

Once Zoeya had arrived, and her head had stopped spinning from the impact with the ceiling, she immediately set about her task. She soon found a simple wooden box, from which she took a vast amount of arrows. Wasting no time, Zoeya deposited the arrows in her personal bit of the Ethereal Storage Realm, an infinite plane of reality which every living thing could access.

Her first task was complete, but Zoeya had little time to relax. Empowering her ring once more, Zoeya leapt from the front window of the watchtower (the giant Teep-head's mouth) and floated quickly but painlessly to the ground. With a nimble landing she dashed off to the plantation, skirting around the four enormous letter statues that spelled out "farm", and got to work. The farm consisted of wheat growing in circles around small irrigation pools, sugar cane growing in a chessboard pattern with more irrigation pools, and some cacti growing in a sandy area. Zoeya gathered them all up with the tender loving care she reserved for anything nature related, storing them with the arrows in the Ethereal Storage Realm.

"Goodbye, farm," said Zoeya dolefully. She had spent a lot of the happiest moments of her life here, working the land. Nature got on well with Zoeya, and she generally returned the favour.

The blue fire was spreading fast. It ate away at Blackrock Stronghold's internal walls, slowly but inexorably eating through the black stone. It made the corridors uncomfortably hot, but that could not stop Rythian from shivering as he entered the magic room. The walls were gone in places, and fire spilled in over the various magical devices, but an oasis of safety surrounded the two Interdiction Torches placed by Zoeya. Rythian gathered up his Transmutation Tablet, Energy Condenser and Red Matter Furnace, all of which have many uses which shall remain a mystery for now, and stored them safely in the black metal chest. Rythian picked up one of the Interdiction Torches and, holding it between his teeth, he carried the chest away to safety.

That was the plan, but sadly, it did not work out. With one Interdiction Torch gone, the other one was not able to hold the door. The power of the blue fire quickly overwhelmed it, and it exploded spectacularly, taking the doors and a fair bit of wall with it.

"Oh, bloody hell!" screamed Rythian, as the inferno rushed into the room. He ran for it, staggering under the weight of the chest, barely keeping ahead of the onrushing fire. And then, suddenly, he screeched to a halt, despairing at the sight before him. The fortress's interior walls had given way, and the fire streamed into his path, fighting against the front doors while more of it advanced towards him.

An icicle of fear stabbed at Rythian's heart. He was trapped. There was no way out of here. The hallway he was in only went towards or away from the front door. There was fire in front of him and more fire behind him. He was now thoroughly doomed. Unless… Working fast, Rythian rummaged in the black chest, eventually bringing out a small silvery amulet inset with an azure blue pearl. An Evertide Amulet. He held it out towards the fire at the front doors and, taking a deep breath, Empowered it.

A torrent of water rushed from the amulet, pushing aside the evil fires and sending up a great cloud of steam. Seizing his chance, Rythian ran to the doors, opened them, stepped outside, closed them, and made for the rendezvous at the pool.

Then he stopped, realising with a sudden sense of dread that Teep was still in the stronghold…

"Teep! Teep, are you all right?" called Rythian, standing as close as he dared to the fire, which broiled and struggled against a pair of Interdiction Torches he had placed either side of the front door.

There was no reply. Then again, there never was, so Rythian did not assume the worst. Teep was a hardy fellow. He would be coming out of the door in just a few seconds, arms laden with books. Of course he would. No doubt about it. He was in no danger. Nothing bad could possibly happen. It was established fact that Teep would, indeed, come out completely unharmed. In his heart, Rythian knew for a fact that Teep definitely wasn't going to die a long, slow, painful death, being slowly torn to burning shreds, trying desperately to force some words out of his inoperative mouth, silently screaming for Rythian or Zoeya to save him from a horrible fate, and finally cursing them when no help came…

"Hold on, Teep! I'm coming!" cried Rythian. Squaring his shoulders, he charged into the flames, slipping on the melting floor as he made his way to the library, where Teep would be. His armour kept the worst of the fire off him, but it was still very hot.

To his dismay, the library was empty when he arrived. Where once there had been vast shelves of books of every kind, now there was only some ash, and a forlorn-looking fireproof black table designed for Enchanting weapons. Teep was long gone.

His eyes misting, Rythian was about to leave when he noticed something. Above him was no roof. The library was open to the sky, so maybe Teep had escaped upwards. Hope dawned once again in the despairing night of Rythian's heart. Empowering his Ring of Arcana, Rythian gracefully ascended to the top of Blackrock Stronghold to see Teep standing there, grinning from ear to ear, holding the blackboard like a tray upon which were various mismatched piles of books. Rythian had no idea how he managed it, and frankly, nor did Teep.

"Oh, Teep, I'm so glad to see you! I thought you'd burned to death!" rejoiced Rythian.

Teep dropped the blackboard-tray of books and embraced Rythian, who then busied himself flying Teep down the ground a safe distance away, followed by the blackboard and books. They stored the books in the black metal chest, lying unharmed where Rythian had left it, and together they carried the chest over to the pool, where Zoeya waited with two tall, broad-shouldered golems of solid iron, and a smaller golem made of snow with a carved pumpkin for a head. His name was Norbert, son of the valiant Gilbert, who had died while rescuing Zoeya from the evil mushroom leader Jeff a few weeks ago.

After a short rest and wash, Rythian, Zoeya, Teep, Norbert and the golems convened on short grassy the cliff beside the small, marble-lined pool of cool, crystal-clear water next to Blackrock Stronghold. Zoeya leaned against the purple plastic slide leading into the pool, occasionally brushed by Teep's tail, while Rythian outlined his plan of action.

"My plan is as follows," Rythian said, enunciating loudly carefully so nobody missed anything. "First, we must find a way of preventing the blue fire from spreading, as well as keeping the demon creating it from leaving. The safety of our neighbours must be taken into consideration, so afterwards, we'll warn them. Once that is taken care of, we need to find a way to get rid of the fire and defeat the demon. These books should give us plenty of information; if not, we'll think of something. If… when we succeed, we'll rebuild the stronghold (again) and get back to normal," declared Rythian. "Any questions?"

Zoeya raised her hand. "It's all a bit thick, isn't it?" she said. "I mean, we hadn't even finished rebuilding after that dragon incident, and-"

"That's not a question," interrupted Rythian. "But yes, it is a bit thick."

They were interrupted then by a loud crash from Blackrock Stronghold, which had collapsed in on itself. The six looked on, appalled at the desecration of their home.

Eventually, Zoeya raised her other hand. "This is a question, I think: Why don't we ask for some help? I mean, if this fire got too big, it could burn up the whole world, and there are lots of people who won't want that to happen."

"Ask for help? That's fine in principle, Zoeya, but the only people in a position to help are scientists," Rythian pointed out.

Teep picked up the blackboard and began to write on it with a piece of chalk that just happened to be lying around. "Not all of them. Some are engineers. Mustn't let prejudices blind you. Desperate times," he wrote.

"Forget it. We are not going to use science," said Rythian stubbornly. "Besides, I have a better idea…"

"Coal dust?"

"Check."

"Pieces of gold?"

"Check."

"Dark matter pedestal?"

"Check."

"Clock?"

"Check."

"Indestructible blast screen?"

"Check.

"Valuables safe behind blast screen?"

"Check and mate," finished Zoeya, gazing proudly at the blast screen she had created from solid red matter at the end of the red pathway leading from what remained of Blackrock Stronghold's front door to the murky swampland beyond, and the collection of magical reagents taken mainly from the black metal chest. (In case you hadn't already guessed, it was bigger on the inside.)

"Excellent! That should be everything. Now, we have little time remaining, so it is imperative that you do exactly as I say, even if it's messy and humiliating or seems counter-intuitive," said Rythian gravely, glancing at the blue fire boiling out from the pile of rubble that had once been Blackrock Stronghold. It crept across the grass, turning it to ash as it passed, and already the pool was evaporating.

Zoeya raised a hand. "Messy and humiliating? Is this just another plot to get me undressed and covered in chocolate mousse?" she asked dubiously.

"Do you really sink I'd think… Sorry, do you really think I'd sink to such depths?" asked Rythian in reply.

"No, just checking," said Zoeya breezily. "Besides, you only need to ask nicely."

Under Rythian's watchful eyes, Zoeya, Teep and the two iron golems sprinkled the coal dust in a circle around the advancing fire while Norbert carefully placed seven gold ingots equidistant around the circle.

When that task was complete, Rythian aligned the dark matter pedestal in between the coal dust circle and the blast screen. He laid the clock flat on top of it, unsheathed his Red Katar (a knife, sword and pair of scissors all rolled into one, as well as made from red matter), and set to work.

First, Rythian pulled the minute hand from the face of the clock. It was a simple flat bit of metal, matching the simple, black-and-white style of the clock, so it was no great shame for Rythian to bend it in half and throw it within the coal dust circle, which began to give off a faint greenish-purple glow. Not stopping to admire it, Rythian sliced the hour hand in half and tossed each half after the bent minute hand. The coal dust's glow grew brighter.

"Make sure you're behind the blast screen, everyone. This is going to be intense!" called Rythian, before beginning the final part of the great enchantment. Rythian stabbed his katar right through the middle of the now handless clock, and poured vast amounts of magical energy into it until it gave off purple sparks. Bracing himself for what was to come, he threw the stricken clock into the magic circle. Then he ran for it, leaping behind the red matter blast screen and sitting heavily on the magical storage chest between Teep and Norbert.

The glow grew brighter still, and kept on increasing in intensity. Within seconds it was dazzlingly bright, but Rythian, Zoeya, Teep and the three golems saw none of it, huddled behind the reassuringly solid wall of solid red. The glow grew brighter still, until dazzlingly white energy leapt from the coal dust, slamming against the indestructible red matter of the blast screen, decimating the plantations, and mauling several innocent animals that had come to watch. Smoke drifted around the blast screen, carrying with it the heady scent of powerful magic, which caused Zoeya to sneeze violently.

"Bless you," muttered Rythian, as he, Zoeya, Teep and the golems stepped out from behind the blast screen. They gaped at the sight before them. Around Blackrock Stronghold, a wide ring of bare earth was all that remained of the surroundings, apart from some grass behind the blast screen, a raised area behind the pool cliff, a muddy bit where the farm had been, some scorched skeletons left behind by some unlucky animals, and a few rocky crags left behind by the more resilient mountains.

"Oh, my days!" breathed Zoeya. "It's… it's…"

"A sight for sore eyes?" suggested Rythian.

"Terrible! Why would you destroy everything like this?" asked Zoeya, in a small voice.

"It's an unfortunate side effect of the time-stop spell. The fire would've destroyed much more if we hadn't done this," Rythian reassured her. For the first time, he looked directly at the stronghold. By now, it was little more than a pile of rubble, finally overcome by the fire inside, which was now still. Everything inside the coal dust circle was completely still. No air moved, no insects flitted, no magical fire blazed. Time had stopped.

Rythian, Teep, Zoeya, Norbert and the two iron golems stared, both proud of the great enchantment they had wrought and horrified at the destruction caused as a side effect. Teep was the first to (metaphorically speaking) break the silence.

"Now what?" he wrote, moving the blackboard around so all could see it.

"Now, we begin phase two of my plan," said Rythian, in a deep, commanding, majestic voice, accompanied by some stirring background music. "Come, friends: the spell will last only a limited time, and we have many leagues ahead of us. Our journey will pass through a great many dangers, for we travel into the darkest of lands, and face the most ferocious of enemies!" Zoeya looked at Teep, who shrugged at her. "Though fiery trials may threaten," continued Rythian, "know this: with justice in our hearts, we shall always prevail. Yea, though we walk into the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil, for His rod and His-"

The epic music ground to a shuddering halt as Teep gently prodded Rythian with his tail, holding up a blackboard message. It said, "Where are we going?"

Rythian blinked. "I don't know."

"What's a league, and why are so many of them ahead of us?" enquired Zoeya.

"Um…" replied Rythian.

"WHAT IS THE VALLEY OF DEATH?" asked one of the golems, in a deep, slow, booming voice like the rumble of plate tectonics.

Rythian gave a deep sigh. This was a good start…