Chapter 10: The story of Freedom.
"The destroyer did? Then that means evil won?"
"He wasn't good nor evil and so was the builder, they had the right to choose between the two, for instance if the builder had won too much progress and construction could have lead to civil wars for resources and power within and outside the races. Too much of anything isn't always good" Alice said
"Oh, so what happened?" I asked with a curious expression
"Without the builder there would not have been anyone strong enough to face the destroyer, Admin had then decided to seal the destroyer, but it came with a cost with the destroyer he sealed himself as well. With out any gods or supreme beings he left the world's inhabitants to decide their fate." Alice said
"So there's no happy ending?" I asked. Alice shook her head.
"Not originally, but there have been many cults who worship the gods and supreme beings, with that arose the many rumors about their faith, the most popular being what was called the second prophecy created by the society known as the Mundus Aedificarem. It states that the soul of Eve still remains in this world today and will further decide the next chosen supreme beings and with it a great evil shall rise to destroy this world and everything in it." Alice said.
The soul of Eve? Was she the one who has been appearing in my dreams, and what she meant by deciding this worlds fate, all related to this?
"Zach are you alright you seem to be in a trance?" Lilith asked
"What? No I'm fine" I said
"And that's the end of the story, now to mob cities and tribes." Alice said
"Tribes?" I said.
"I forgot to mention, when Admin had sealed the destroyer, that seal emitted a great amount of magic which turned the souls of the fallen who have lost their lives during the war and turned them into mobs which have never before walked on this world, unlike the mobs that existed before them these mobs were unorganized, uncivilized, blood thirsty and would attack anything not of their own kind, after the war the world was in ashes, tainted by the hands of everything that had built it and these mobs possessing the same souls, we gave them the name "The corrupted". The strange thing about the corrupted is that no matter how many times you kill them, they keep returning." Alice said.
"Returning, huh?" She must mean the mobs like the goblins, well it's only natural since any mob in any RPG would attack any player and or NPC's regardless who they are. Returning? Ah that must be respawn, I always thought respawning was apart of the system, but here it's explained. This worlds just keeps getting better and better.
"Now, we go to mob cities" Alice said.
"Each mob race except the corrupted in Infinitum has their own capital city, surrounding the main capital are other villages as well as towns there are also many scattered mob towns even if they aren't near the capital and out of the race territory all of these cities form the mob empire known as the Blood Alliance, but there are a few exceptions within the cities. One of them is the creeper city, unlike the others they're not independent because they are a faction of the skeletons. We have no information regarding the Aether, The Nether Abyss or the End" Alice said.
"Why aren't they independent like the other races?" I said. Christia suddenly faced down with a Grimm face.
"Christia are you alright?" I asked.
"Um, yeah just a bit tired" Christia gave of a forced smile, but the depressing atmosphere around her didn't change.
"Did... I say something wrong?" I asked.
"N-No! It's just that..." Christia reacted and became silent.
"The reason why she's acting like that is because there's a history concerning the creepers and the skeletons." Alice said.
"The origins of creepers were through skeletons, after all the races were born many of them showed signs or rapid advancement, first were the endermen and next were the humans and the skeletons. They were the ones who had the most wars with the humans, and were on the losing end. So they decided to create a new type of mob, a mob that could infiltrate and sneak into enemy lines without being suspected by anyone, with sulfur and blood flowing through their veins they succeeded creating the perfect living bomb and as their purpose they gave them the name Creepers. With this new mob they were able to turn the tide in their wars and ended with a stalemate. After the wars have ceased many creepers remained alive and unused, they created a city for them to live, but it was more like a prison for their test subjects. That was the way they were treated for generations, until 50 years after the creepers decided to revolt, many creepers died that day, those who escaped managed spread that's why the creeper population has roamed across this world and continue to live on up to this day, though it was because of this that the skeletons have tightened their security around the creeper city. Alice said
"I see, so they were treated as disposable test subjects, how despicable!" Christia continued to stay silent without a word.
"There was actually a second revolt that occurred, this one was 5 years ago... And one me and Christia were apart of" Alice said
"A second?" Another one 5 years ago this quite recent, is this why Christia is keeping silent.
"But, unless I get Christia's consent I can't tell you anything" Alice said
"Oh, if that's the case then I guess it's alright if you do-..."
"No, it's fine..." Christia said.
"Christia, are sure you might be reminded of your memories of that time?" Alice said.
"Y-Yes, I am fine please continue" Christia said with her head tilted. Alice took a deep breath.
"Alright, this is the story of how me and Christia met, I was 14 years old when I first met Christia..." Alice said.
(Flashback of Alice 5 years ago) (NOTE: All first person perspectives are by Alice not Zach)
Alice was looking out my house's balcony when my friends arrived...
"Creeper city?" Alice asked
"Yeah, there's a whole city full of them!" A boy said
"Eh? I was told that our race created them." A girl said
"I heard they can explode whenever they wanted, which helped us with our wars against the humans." Another boy said.
"Hah! In the end their all just experiments and test subjects made by us, nothing special!" Anther boy said.
"Alice your not coming with us?" A girl asked.
"I'll catch up with you later" Alice said.
All of her friends walked away, Alice stayed continuing to look out her balcony.
"Creepers, huh? I wonder what it's like in their city." Alice continued to ponder, what creepers are and soon became curious about them. She started going to the library collecting books on the history of creepers and how they were created, this piqued her interest all the more.
"So they really were created by skeletons..." Alice said while reading a book.
"Even after the wars we still continue to create them... Oh it ends here?" Alice said lookin at the torn pages of her book.
"The pages seemed to be ripped out, that makes me even more curious now" Alice said
The next day she prepared her supplies to go to the creeper city. She ventured towards the creeper city, it took her at least an hour to travel by horse. She was expecting to see something similar to the skeleton city, towers, a clear sky, and happiness all around, what she found was the the total opposite. When she arrived I sighted a reinforced wall made of stone and iron, skeletons guards fully equipped with weapons patrolling each side of the wall. It looked more
like a prison than a city. It didn't seem she was going to get in through the front just from the look of the guards, she instead found a hole big enough for her to fit through and ventured forth into the prison like city. I creeped around through the buildings and alleyways for her not to be seen by anyone. On the streets of the city there were dozens of creepers lining up to get there share of food and water served by the guards. Some of them were in chains, others were lying on the ground dead. This was not the type of image she had thought of the city. While she was walking through the alley ways I came across two people one was a guard the other was a creeper girl. This creeper was coated with clothes in patches that were stitched on. She had pink hair, and lovely green eyes with an annoyed expression looking towards the guard in front of her.
"Thief! Where the portion of food you stole from us!" The guard said
"I told you I didn't steal anything from you" She said
"You think I would just believe that?!" The guard suddenly slapped her.
"Ah!" The creeper fell to the ground.
"Ungrateful trash!, we let you live and this is how you repay us! Your just an experiment things like you should have been left to die ages ago!" The guard shouted furiously.
"Heh" she laughed and made a smirked towards the guard.
"What was that?!" The guard shouted.
"It's funny because you realize the trash your talking to is creeper right? If I recall you made us to explode anytime we want, I can easily kill myself and take you down with me any second I want." Her eyes were filled with bloodlust and killing intent giving the message"I can easily kill you right now don't you know?" The guard suddenly realized his mistake and trembled, he slowly took a few steps back.
"Oh now you understand, now be afraid and run along" she said and the guard did just that and quickly ran as fast as possible. She then turned to the corner where Alice was hiding behind. Alice quickly hid.
"I know your there, so just come out already." She said and Alice did as she was told.
"Y-Your not going to" Alice stood shuddering.
"So your a skeleton and No, I'm not going to blow up. What I said to the guard was just a bluff anyway, can't believed it actually worked though! hahahaha!" She laughed.
"A bluff?" Alice asked still frightened.
"Oh c'mon you really think I would blow myself up for a few scraps of food?" She said.
"Which reminds me..." She said and went into the corner of the alley and pulled up a lid of a bucket, in it were 3 whole loaves of bread.
"So you did steal it!" Alice exclaimed.
"Keep your voice down! Someone might hear you!" She said immediately.
"Sorry! sorry!" Alice said waving her hands.
"So what's your name?" She asked. Alice's expression changed at her words.
"I don't think I should casually give my name to a stranger just like that." Alice said
"Smart, guess your not just a pretty face " She smirked.
"Alright let me ask you something, why'd you steal the food?" Alice asked
"Why should I tell you a person I know nothing of the reasons of my theft" She said.
"Sharp, Not too gullible for a kid" Alice said. Both Alice and the girl were staring at each other, both not backing of.
"Hmph, tell ya what, how about we make a trade? You tell me who you are and I'll do the same" She said
"How can I trust your words" Alice asked
"Right back at you" She said
"Fine, I'll comply" Alice said
"Good but, let's go somewhere more private. C'mon I know a place" She said
"Again, how can I trust you?" Alice said
"You can't, but as of now we'll both be in danger if someone see's you together with me after what I just did" She said. I mean its not like I wasn't in danger in the first place, but she's right.
"I guess your right" Alice said
"Now C'mon!" I then followed the strange girl to an abandoned building, both of them went to the top most floor to be safe nobody see's them. Once they reached the top, we began staring in front of each other. Both silent until...
"Alright then I'll start" Alice said
"My name is Alice Scelestia, I'm a 15 year old skeleton. I came to this city because I was curious of creepers with nobody else and have no connections to anyone in the city, nothing more." Alice said
"You were curious, Alice?" She asked
"My friend told me about your race and it piqued my interest so I decided to read about it but all the information regarding creepers are lacking in the city so why not go to the source?" Alice said. The girl's eyes narrowed at Alice.
"Its only natural they would be lacking any information about us to keep people like you out of this hell" She said.
"Hm, There aren't a lot of people like you, who would care about our race especially skeletons for that matter" She said. Alice was confused of what she said to her.
"My name is Christia I've been a creeper living in this city for about 12 years" She said
"That's it?" Alice asked curiously
"That's all there is to it" Christia said
"Alright then let me ask again why'd you steal the food?" Alice asked
"Let's just say it's for some people I know" Christia said. I felt a small sense of distrust and mystery behind her words, but for the sake of my curiosity I didn't want her to lose trust in me by prying more info out of her. I want to ask her...
"So Christia" Alice said
"Yeah?" Christia said
"What you we're saying that there aren't a lot of people who would care about your race?" Alice said
"It's unusual you wouldn't know, but you do know our history right? About us being made by skeletons and used for war which was our only purpose right" Christia said
"Yes, what I studied back home wasn't that much though" Alice responded
"Do you still remember what the guard said just a bit ago?" Christia said. Alice's eyes widened at her thought.
"You mean... No that can't be" Alice said astonished.
"Yeah that's how they think of us, test subjects, experiments, trash, disposable whatever you want to call it to them were inferior, as the guard said we could all have been killed, but they let us live for the sake of "research" " Christia said
"That's awful! I never thought that my race would do such a thing" Alice said, Christia was left there staring at her, until they heard the sound of grumbling. Christia's face flushed.
"Oh I-I'm sorry! That's embarrassing, I must be hungry" Christia said
"No it's fine, I'm actually getting quite hungry as well" Alice said
"Well I know it's not much, but I guess I can give you some of the food I st-" Christia said
"No! no it's fine, you said you needed that for some people, I don't want to trouble you by asking food from you, plus I've got something better!" Alice said. She then searched through the rummage in her bag and brought out a cloth bag. Inside it was a loaf of golden brown bread and 2 apples. Alice split the bread in two.
"Here" Alice gave it to her with the apple.
"This is looks like some high quality bread! But what's this other thing you gave to me?" Christia said
"Take a bite out of it first" Alice said.
Christia was looking at the fruit with a puzzled face and having second thoughts of biting it, but eventually she did just that. Her eyes widened at the sweet taste of the apple.
"Mm!" Christia said as she was chewing and swallowed.
"What is this!? It tastes amazing!" Christia said with stars in her eyes
"It's an apple." Alice said
"An Apple?" Christia said puzzled
"Yeah it's a fruit" Alice said
"Fruit?! I've heard of that! That's something that grows on trees on the outside right?!"Christia said surprised
"Yeah... Have you never been outside this city?" Alice asked
"Outside, huh... No, we creepers have been confined in these walls ever since we were born, most of us want to see what's on the outside but, due to our status in the skeleton society we remain here." Christia said. Christia's expression changed.
"But even so there will come a day where we creepers will stand on equal ground with our creators and escape the confinement of this prison like city, and maybe then we can see what's outside." Christia said as if giving a speech.
"Christia..." Alice said speechless
"Wait why am I telling you this?" Christia said
"I think it's wonderful, but until that day comes how about I tell you what's on the outside" Alice said
"Really!?" Christia said with sparkles in her eyes.
"Sure, did you know there's actually a place covered with snow and ice?" Alice said
"Snow? What's that?" Christia asked
"I guess you have a lot of learning to do" Alice said with a palm on her face.
(Hours later)
"It's almost sundown I think I should go back, before my parents start to worry" Alice said
"You'll come back right, Alice?" Christia said
"Don't worry I will, I'll be sure to bring some souvenirs along with me" I went of that day, reflecting on what I just discovered and I felt ashamed that my race would do such a thing. Due to that I continued to visit Christia at least once every week for about 3 months bringing something different with me every time. One day...
"You know you really are blessed" Christia stared down at her chest.
"Truly blessed indeed..." Christia said. Alice's face blushed.
"WHERE ARE YOU LOOKING!?" Alice exclaimed covering her chest.
"Just kidding." Christia smiled.
"No, seriously though. To be a skeleton, you get to live a normal life, be treated equally by everyone, not discriminated and actually live..." There was a long pause after what Christia said.
"You still remember what I said that we can explode anytime we want to, but that's not actually true. We can if we wanted to but our body isn't wired to our minds fully so we can explode anytime without us activating it." Christia said depressed.
"What?! Then...!" Alice said
"But there are symptoms to tell, first is when we would start to feel extremely warm at the temperature where it can burn skin when in contact, second is when we start to faint many times, and third is when we start coughing out blood mixed with sulfur, but even though I know that I will die some day I'll still having hope for a day to leave this place" Christia said. Alice paused for a few seconds before speaking again.
"Christia, your wrong having hope is already a blessing which not everyone has" Alice said
"And, Your wrong you know about me being blessed for being a skeleton" Alice said
"In the skeleton city most people are cowards, afraid to step out of their shell and make a difference what's worse are the leaders who tied them down with their rules, they give of kind smiles, but that's only to mask the malice they have done, after that meeting with you that day I felt angry, ashamed that I was born to a race with no shame for their actions. But even I have my own goals, someday I'm going to take the crown and send destroy this corrupt system. Then I'll free everyone in this city" Alice said. Christia stayed silent without words.
"Alice..." Christia said staring at her.
"But as of now I can't, but I still have some goals I can do, I have to at the very least get you out of here" Alice said
"Alice, Thank you" Christia said and smiled at her
"Now that I think about it, I actually can" Alice said
"WHAT! HOW!" Christia suddenly lunged at Alice said
"Hey calm down" Alice said holding onto Christia's shoulders.
" I actually came in through a hole in the wall" Alice said casually
"A hole! Why didn't you tell me!" Christia said
"You never asked how I got in here." Alice said
"Show me!" Christia said
Christia followed Alice to the exact hole where she had entered the city for the last two months.
"Wow! there really is a hole, never thought the skeletons would miss this!"Christia said
"Hrmm, then I guess we'll have to adjust our plans from now on."Christia said
"Plans? " Alice said puzzled.
"Alice come with me, I have something I want to show you"Christia said
"O-Okay" Alice said
Alice followed Christia through the alleyways and cracks so that they wont be seen or followed. Until they stopped at a wall with a button on it, Christia pressed the button and a doorway opened, Alice was confused as to why she's here.
"Where are we?"Alice said
"You'll see"Christia said
They both went inside and went to the second floor where there were about 10 people huddled up together discussing while another 10-30 were laying on the ground, sitting down or moving boxes of supplies. One of them noticed Christia...
"Christia! Your... Home" Soon after others noticed as well, and were staring at Alice.
"Christia... Who is that behind you?" One of them said.
"Her, name's Alice she's a skeleton."Christia said casually
"A Skeleton!" They all reacted.
"Are you an IDIOT!" A woman said
"Do you want to get us all KILLED!" A man said
"Silence!" A man said, and everyone became tranquil.
"Christia I know you have done some outrageous actions, but this is the most ridiculous one yet! What is your reason for bringing an enemy here?!" The man at the center said.
"Sorry John but this time, this is something serious" All of them stayed silent.
"She knows away out of the city!"Christia said
"A way out?" A man said.
"She's probably lying, I mean how can we trust her?" The man said
"I've been meeting with her for the past 2 months I know Alice well enough that she want to help us escape."Christia said
"Two months!? You dared not tell me!?" The man at the center of the group said
"If I told you, you would have stopped me otherwise"Christia said
"Even so how do you know if there is a hole?" A person said.
"I've seen it myself! Its south west from here, If possible I bet we can all escape in the following week"Christia said
"Escape?" A voice in the crowd said
"We can finally escape?" Another voice said
"How can you be sure she isn't a spy sent here to kill us!?" The same man said
"I am no spy! I came here with no connections, not a single skeleton knows that I'm here!" Alice said
"Puh-lease would you honestly think we would believe that nonsense coming from scum like you?!" The same man said
"SHUT UP SEAN! You have no right to speak like that in front of Alice!" Christia shouted
"SILENCE! BOTH OF YOU!" The man in the center shouted. The room became silent.
"Sean, Christia may do some ridiculous things, but she is no liar!" the man at the center said
"Yes, Sir. My apologies." Sean said
"Christia, Calm down Sean is not your enemy!" the man at the center said
"Y-Yes" Christia said. Alice's face widened as this was the first time the mischievous girl she knows would listen to anybody. In her mind she knew whoever this person is it must be important even for Christia to respect him.
"Now I'll go see if what Alice says is true, then we decide our next move" The man said and stood up
"Christia, Alice lead the way" He said
"Yes" They both said.
All 3 of them walked out of the room together...
(1 hour and 30 minutes later)
"That little prick! Just because he's older than me doesn't mean he can talk about my friends like that!" Christia shouted.
Me and the man beside me were silent as Christia was shouting her angers out. The man walking beside me looked to be an old man in his mid 50's
"Um Sir... Who was that man that made Christia angry" Alice asked. The man looked towards her with narrow eyes. A chill then ran down Alice's spine.
"O-Oh I-I'm s-sorry I didn't introduce myself!"Alice said
"My name is Alice Scelestia, I've been a friend of Christia for 2 months now. I am truly sorry if she did not inform you about our relationship!" Alice bowed.
"Haha!" The old man chuckled at the sight of Alice's behavior.
"Uuuh" Alice said puzzled.
"I see for you to bow to even us despite knowing our races you truly are a humble person." He said
"You don't need to be to formal, I'm not a skeleton after all, My name is John Kanter, I'm the leader of the Creeper revolt in this city" He said
"You can call me by John" He said
"The Creeper revolt? You mean that movement that has been harassing the skeletons here in the creeper city, right?" Alice said. John thought that upon hearing she would be frightened or at the very least shocked, but Alice was composed.
"Yes, I thought you would be more surprised, but actually quite composed upon hearing" John said.
"It's because I know that you are someone who Christia respects and trust" Alice said
"Trust is one thing, but Respect huh? Everyone does except for her" John said
"Haha... Well coming from her it is to be expected"Alice said
"I'm sorry if she didn't tell you about me" Alice said
"It's alright, I know Christia she can be a bit reckless, but she's a good girl" John said
"Hey! What are you guys talking about?" Christia said
"Oh, I was just introducing my self in front of your leader, I didn't know you were apart of the Creeper revolt, Why didn't you tell me? I could have told you earlier about the hole if you did."Alice said
"I didn't fully trust you yet, that time, but now I do so everything is good now" Christia said
"Our groups goal was to supposedly take over this city from the reign of the skeletons, but after a whole 10 months..." John said
"We of course can't because we don't have the resources or anything to be able to match them. So we decided to find a way to escape instead." Christia said
"Ah, that makes sense" Alice said
"So tell me what have you two been doing together for the past two months, I'm interested to know" John said
"Well I..."Alice said
"Alice would tell me about what's on the outside, she always brings food and nice things to keep us busy, there's so many things outside! Did you know that there's something called snow that fall when it's really really cold! I want to see it when I get out of here!"Christia said
"The outside huh... I see you found a good friend Christia, perhaps you can enlighten me as well when this is all over" John said
"I would gladly, but maybe I don't have to. We are here" Alice pointed towards the hole in the wall. Johns eyes grew wider with astonishment.
"So...this is it ?" John said
"Yes"Alice said
"Thank the Gods have shined upon us!" John said
"We shall return to the base and report this, Christia we shall pull through with your plan and escape next week" John said
"Thank you!" Christia said. Christia then turned back at Alice with tears in her eyes.
"Alice we can escape! We can finally escape! Thank you!" Christia exclaimed and quickly hugged Alice.
"I told you I would didn't I?" Alice said
Alice felt something ominous. She turned to the building behind them, but there was nothing.
"Alice, something wrong?"Christia said
"N-no of course not"Alice said
"Then let's head back!"Christia said
"Was I imagining that?" Alice said to her self.
As soon as they got back to John's base, John announced to everyone the confirmation of the hole and their escape the following week. Everyone rejoiced and had a feast that day, I was about to pack up and leave to go home.
"Hey, Alice your leaving already?"Christia said
"Well, my parents will get worried if I'm not home yet any longer"Alice said
"Oh, Okay you'll be back within the week right?" Christia said worriedly.
"Of course! I'm escaping with you guys too you know!" Alice said.
"I already told John and he approved."Alice said
"What?! What about your life! If you escape with us you'll be considered a renegade in the kingdom!"Christia said
"Pfft! So what? The kingdom was boring in the first place, even we skeletons were bound to our own chains in the kingdom, I think it's about time that I too find out what lies beyond the kingdom"Alice said
"Then what about..."Christia said
"Don't get me wrong I'm coming back for the throne and soon after free this city"Alice said
"Hmph!" Christia smiled.
"When that happens I'm coming back with you, That's a promise!"Christia said
"It's a promise!" Alice then went home and came back 2 days later.
"Alice your back! I have some friends I want you to meet" Alice followed Christia to a room and found 4 people standing in the middle. 2 boys and 2 girls.
"Hey guys this is her! Alice these are my friends."Christia said
They all were wearing ragged clothes with patches and had almost the same height as Christia. One of the boys in glasses and had brownish straight hair. The other boy had messy black hair with a scar on his cheek with cold eyes. One of the girls had light green hair in a braid like hairstyle and the other had blue hair with it flowing down and all of them had kind eyes looking right at me.
"Its nice to meet you Alice, We have been hearing some good stuff about you from Christia" said the girl with green hair.
"I'm Kanaria" said the girl with green hair
"I'm Hana" said the girl with blue hair
"I'm Carl" said the boy with glasses. The boy with black hair did not say a word and looked away in disgust.
"The Quiet guy over there, yeah his name is Zed" Carl said. He continued to stay quiet and avoided their gazes at him.
"Doesn't seem to be much of a talker is he?" Alice said.
"I heard from Christia that you told her a bunch of stuff from the outside."
"Um, yeah."Alice said
"So um..." Kanaria said with a few seconds of pause in between her response.
"Could you please tell us as well!? " Kanaria said
"Eh?"Alice said with surprise
"Were so excited to meet you!" Hana said. Alice's face turned to a slight blush.
"Yeah! There's something called the ocean right?!"Carl said
"Did you bring anything? Christia always tells us about the stuff you bring" Kanaria said. Each of them had expectant eyes full of stars with excitement. Soon Alice's blushed face turned back to normal and she smiled.
"Alright everyone, gather around, I'll tell you a whole bunch of things"
"Tch! I'm leaving" Zed flicked his tongue in disgust.
"Aw! c'mon stay and join us Zed!" Kanaria said
"Don't wanna" he soon left the room.
"Uh! He is such a downer!" Carl said
"Its alright everyone, I'll go after him" Christia said.
"Alice I'll be back" Christia said and ran out the room to chase after him.
"C'mon Alice tell us what's on the outside?"
"Okay, Okay..."Alice said
Alice continued to go there almost everyday sharing what was on the outside to the children and the other creepers until the day they were going to escape.
(Back to Zach POV) point of view
"Did you escape?" I asked.
Alice's face then gave of a grave expression as well as Christia's. The atmosphere around them went dark.
"Me and Christia, We escaped"Alice said
"Everyone else?" Alice then shook her head.
"They died" Alice said.