Chapter XXVI: Forbidden Futures

In all honesty, I never bothered to look into the Forbidden Machines much. They seemed just sort of there. Like stupid little things that served no purpose but to bring people into this atrocity of a game. Well, not Minecraft, just Ancient Minecraft, you know. Ever since The Pig Paladin (was it Pork Paladin? I don't care anymore) I've never bothered to try and figure out their origins. It's a strange thing, really. I knew already that Solstice created The Garden of Rowan and that Conner made Aquatic Oblivion. What the hell were the others? For the first time since the beginning, I was curious as to just what the hell they were.

We all piled into the tunnel and began digging. It was a strange thing, really. We all wanted out of this, but knew that it wasn't that easy. We'd have to fight our goddamn way out. Whatever light was at the end of this nightmarish tunnel didn't matter as long as we eventually found it. All four of us lined up along the wall, holding our shovels, and began digging. While we dug, I guess Blackfield got the urge to try and explain more to us. All three of us (Solstice, Conner, and I) were completely oblivious on what the Forbidden Machines really were. I guess Solstice knew some, but she didn't know a lot. I think only Blackfield had enough knowledge of the stuff to really freaking understand and explain.

"So, I guess I'll begin with telling you the different Forbidden Machines that have been discovered," Blackfield said, taking the far right of the wall beside Conner, "I already said how I had built Blitzkrieg. Solstice had built a fortress called The Garden of Rowan that had been of use to us on multiple occasions in Forbidden. You understand how Conner built Aquatic Oblivion. Octane had built an interesting maze of railroad tracks called Night Owl that would help him sneak around in the night. Contra built an interesting wall of glowstone called Balderdash that caused deceit to those facing it. Tyrus built Angel's Gate that could bring only one person back from the dead. Ashland built Genesis which forced mobs away in fear. Gage built Ultimate Arm which protected him from all attacks around him. Lyle built built Hurricane Valley which did about the same thing as Ultimate Arm. That only leaves the three that have not been built yet."

This was more complicated than I freaking hoped for. I mean, seriously. Why had Notch gone out of his way to make such a convoluted system? It seemed pointless. Then again, we were going through this to try and find this goddamn "point" or reason. Once we found it, all would make sense. At least I hoped.

Conner stopped digging, "I only count thirteen then."

He was right. All that Blackfield mentioned was only adding up to thirteen when he said there were fourteen. What was missing?

"I guess I forgot about old Hospice." Blackfield chuckled.

Right, Hospice. The dude that was apparently a legend. He could supposedly control Endermen. Conner and I didn't know him, but he seemed dear to Solstice and Blackfield. I really wish I could've met him, though. He probably could've been a major contributor to this little mess we made. Too bad he had to die. How he died, though, remained a mystery.

"Hospice built... well, he built this magnificent tower," Blackfield continued digging while reminiscing, "it was made of bedrock."

I stopped digging. What had he just said?

"It was designed for water and all that."

"The Waterfall Tower?"

Blackfield looked at me, "Excuse me?"

"Hospice built The Waterfall Tower as a Forbidden Machine?"

"Yeah, how did you know?" Blackfield stopped digging. We all did, actually. We were freaking bored. Not much to do until we could get to the next server.

"That goddamn thing made me flood the freaking Nether," I looked over at Solstice, who wasn't paying attention, "and led me to her. I don't know if I should be angry or not."

"Yeah, Hospice built The Waterfall Tower. The remaining three Forbidden Machines were Y, the strongest of them all; The Carnivore, which turned dead mobs into food; and Aurum, which would turn all stone and dirt underneath it to gold for you to mine." Blackfield explained. He seemed to know a lot about this. Too much, really. How did he know all of this?

"Could I ask you a question, Blackfield?" I began while Conner and Solstice just wandered around, "The Forbidden Machines were discovered upon being built, right? Then how the hell do you know so much about the ones that haven't been built yet?"

He waited a few seconds, "The Forbidden Machines weren't discovered that way... they were discovered through the files in Forbidden that I hacked into upon first reaching there. It was Tyrus and I that began to look further into it and all. We learned from the get-go that there were fourteen that needed to be found."

"And they were in the programming?" I asked.

"Yeah."

Since they must've been bored out of their freaking minds, Solstice and Conner returned to digging.

"Were they meant for something besides bringing us into Ancient Minecraft?" I asked. It was a damn good question. If they were in the programming of Forbidden, then they had to serve some goddamn purpose. They couldn't just be there for no reason. I felt like I was onto something. There were fourteen.

Blackfield called Solstice and Conner over to where we were before they could even begin freaking digging. We all were around the pedestal. I guess it was time we actually began discussing things. It would be necessary, after all, if we wanted to get through this thing. Was it something that I said that triggered Blackfield's thought process? I dunno. He just sorta began talking is all.

"It's time we come up with a master plan," Blackfield said with a bit more confidence, "Howie here stated that there is some probable reason for the existence of the fourteen Forbidden Machines. It's time we begin connecting everything we've come across to figure out just what the hell is going on here. No more death. No more mind games. It's time we face the future of this damn game."

Damn, Blackfield rarely cursed. He sounded passionate, though. Like, really passionate. It was freaking cool.

We basically began sort of laying out what we had discovered up to this point:

1. The servers "Forbidden" and "Xanadu" were connected somehow.

2. The Logic System represented infinity or immortality in that it has an infinite number of variables or something.

3. Xanadu was really Blackfield (sorta).

4. There were crosses at the end of both servers.

5. The goddamn home movie of the little boy in the language I didn't understand.

6. The fourteen Forbidden Machines.

7. The seven deadly sins in Xanadu.

8. Xanadu meant "glorious" or something like that.

We were stuck. We were stuck in a goddamn rut. There was no way out now. We had to think hard.

Blackfield was freaking right.

It was time we face the future.

Howard Answers:

BladeInTheDark: It's great to see that I've been leaving some sort of impact on you guys. Otherwise I'd think this was for nothing. I didn't really turn him down, I just said that the likelyhood of me visiting was, well, unlikely.

BlessedMC: Yeah, no problem, I guess. The daily updates come because I'm pretty good with memory and stuff. I can write down my thoughts in a pretty decent format. FMP would look over it to make sure there would be no mistakes. If you do find any, be sure to point your goddamn finger at him!