BanjoNote: After the rushed chapter that is last one, I decree that this chapter will be longer then the last! A promise that is not hard to achieve!
The first few paragraphs were meant to be in last chapter, but I promised some people it would come out on the 15th, and I couldn't just deny them it! That's something I'd never do!
...right?
Anyways, I also said that this chapter would have the next Arc's name, so here it is: The Shattered Arc! Bit like Broken, but... cooler. Also an arc that was changed dramatically, and definitely for the better.
Here is Part One of Four of the finale.
BanjoMano does not own Minecraft. I can't even finish a story, much less manage a game.
[Gimero]
"Listen to me!" I shouted, as all of the people around the table shot towards their weapons. "None of you could've had it! If I gave it to one of you factions, every other faction would've jumped on that group! Herobrine wants to watch you guys tear at each other; the only people who have a chance at fighting him!"
"He's right." Haedrik, the only person not standing, quietly agreed. "If you all join together, you do have a chance at fighting him."
"Exac- wait, what do you mean, you?" I turned to him. He rolled his shoulders and reached into his belt.
"I've been... promised a little bit of something, Guided. All I need is a certain item... and I have no need of your politics." He gestured at everyone at the table. "Luckily, your girlfriend Riley had exactly what I needed. A little green stone... of immense power."
He pulled out an emerald and rolled it around in his hand. As he moved it around, it started to glow and give off a whirring sound, the kind of sound you feel and not hear. He gripped it tightly and gave Riley a grin. She had not put away her rapier, and when she saw tbe emerald, her eyes narrowed.
"Power from the purest source - power that I only needed a day to control." He raised his hand up, the emerald glowing like a glowstone. With his other hand, he snapped his fingers and instantly faded from existence. However, he gave off invisible particles, and I saw him bolt with unnatural speed towards the door. I lost track of him soon after that, but Riley bolted up the stairs.
I looked behind me at the leaders of the factions, who all had their weapins out and at the ready. I waved for them to follow and ran up the stairs, with them rigtht behind me. Isaac caught up to me and tapped my shoulder to get my attention. "Merchant."
"Ye-yeah?" I asked, startled and intimidated by his physique. He chuckled at me shriking away and gave me a friendly clap on the back. "You've got no reason to fear me, kid. In fact, now that I think of it, you're correct in destroying the block."
"Still could've gotten me alot of money." Milo grumbled, and Jadon nodded sagely.
We poured out of the underground staircase to Riley swearing loudly. I ran up to her and she spun around, her coat flairing dramatically like an anime character.
"He got away." She told me. "That emerald... I don't know much about it. Only my brother knows anything of them, but he's all the way in-"
"Doesn't matter." Isaac interupted. "Haedrik said that the -" He waved his free hand, struggling to find a word. "Emerald is to be given to someone. At least, it was implied."
Crack! Crack!
The loud sounds of popping rang throughout this layer of Zhoria. I looked around on all directions until I saw the blue and red fireworks. another three of them went up, and exploded into the noon-day air. I remembered the events of Lafor and made a face - a mixture of surprise and fear. Mavich gave a huff and muttered "So that's why he needed fireworks. I knew his spawn-day wasn't until four months."
Ignoring that comment, I looked back at Riley, who had a look of determination on her face. "We don't have much time, if any. Go to your bases or whatever you call them and gather as much people as you can. Herobrine isn't going to wait."
The leaders nodded and ran off to their respective 'bases'. Riley stepped up beside me and put a hand on my shoulder.
"I'm going after Haedrik." She told me, gripping her rapier tight. Taking her hand off my shoulder, she took out a map of Boreas. She pointed to a point on the map - behind the castle on the fifth district. "That's where you need to be. The Iron Golems are hidden there, along with Herobrine's most... wanted enemies."
"Your friend and Meta." I interpreted. "I, uh, don't think I'll be able to get in. It's kind of... y'know..." I scratched the back of my head. "High - tech and all probably-"
"Shut up and do it." She shoved the map into my hands, but still have me a little smile. "I need that viking out of prison." She tossed an ender pearl over towards the fireworks and quickly gave me a peck on the cheek before disappearing into the slums.
Flustered, I struggled to get the map in the right direction. I shook the negative thoughts out of my head and took off into the streets.
[Riley]
I teleported sliding to a stop, ignoring the pain in my stomach. I looked around quickly, and saw Haedrik holding up the emerald.
"Hey!" I called, standing up and brushing my hair out of my face. "I think you have something that's mine."
Startled, he spun around and nearly threw the emerald. Recovering quickly, he gave me the evilest smirk he could muster. Which wasn't very evil, but his teeth were very yellow. I gave him a sweet but deadly smile right back and left him no room to talk.
Like a smart, non-cliche person. Honestly, why do heroes do that?
He opened his mouth to say something, but I got in quick and delivered a roundhouse kick into his jaw. He fell backwards, all of the air leaving his chest with a loud heave. The emerald was thrown out of his grasp and slid down the ice-laced street. I jumped over him and reached for the emerald -
Zwip!
Another green object landed in front of the emerald, and the form of a man appeared. His back was turned to me, so all I saw was the black cloak of Herobrine flapping in the wind. I yanked my hand back and whipped my rapier at his back, stopping the point when it was an inch from his back. At his side, his scythe was scratching across the ground.
He spun around, his scythe coming up in a circle and down on me. I twirled to the side and lunged at him with my rapier. He gripped his scythe with two hands and used it as an anchor to flip backwards, easily avoiding my blade.
"You've lost your touch." Herobrine taunted. "If you truly live up to the standards of the story, then you really aren't up to it today."
"Maybe I'm not giving it my full." I muttered, whipping my rapier at his cheek. He snapped his head back and ripped his scythe at me, tearing the stone out of the ground and catching me off guard, cutting into my arm and taking out 3 hearts. I swore and dropped my rapier, clattering to the ground in front of the spectating Haedrik. He picked it up and looked at it up and down.
Herobrine pointed the tip of his scythe at my head. "Why, this was easier than I expected. Haedrik, you delivered more then what I asked! The emerald and this girl!"
"Wha-" He turned his gaze to me, confused. "Uh... sure. So about that rewar- ACH!"
Herobrine, quicker than the eye could see, sunk his golden scythe into his chest. Instantly, the man exploded into oblivion, his head laying in a pile of loot. I got to my feet and ran towards my rapier. Herobrine stepped back and let me pick it up. He spread his arms, like a come at me gesture. I put away my rapier and gave him a mischievous grin.
"You want me to give it my all?" I taunted. He let out a single laugh and charged me. Instead of letting him swing, I grappled him, closed my eyes, and used my Craft to teleport us.
[Gimero]
"Where to go, where to- GAH!"
I turned violently into another street, a hail of arrows shooting down on me. Skeletons on the outer walls aimed their bows down on the streets, firing at anything that moved. Herobrine had controlled all the mobs in the city to start attacking, so I was going through a maze of arrows and zombies.
Looking down at my map, I took off in a mad dash down the road. This detour was going to take longer then the intended route, but I wasn't risking getting shot with arrows. I rolled the map up and put it in my left hand, using my right to hold my frying pan.
"Thanks for the 9th update." I muttered to myself. Somehow, before the ninth update, people couldn't hold two things at once. Which confuses me to another level, but now wasn't the time to think of how that worked.
Another item from the ninth update popped into my head, but I didn't have enough iron to make it. I had left most of my materials in a chest by my stall, which I was nowhere near as of now. Not even the correct district.
I heard the moaning of Zombies somewhere to my right, and I turned to see a group of four Zombies stumbling towards me. I pointed my pan at them, quickly stepping backwards and nearly tripping.
A red potion was thrown in the middle of the group, letting out sounds of pain from the zombies. Isaac, the leader of the Militia, landed in the middle of the group and swung his sword, cutting down three of the zombies. He took out his shield and slammed the last one, knocking it off balance. With a quick thrust to the stomach, it exploded into rotten flesh.
"You seemed to be in trouble!" He exclaimed, adjusting his helmet and giving me a big smile. "Thought I'd help, seeing as you're on my path!"
"Ye-yeah! Thanks!" I gave a shaky smile. "Could I use that shield? For, uh-" I mimicked arrows falling down on my head, because I forgot the word arrow. "Those things?"
"Arrows!" He gave a quick laugh and tossed it at me. I grabbed it and wiped off the snow, sliding my map away to free my left hand. "Sorry to leave you without one - oh."
He pulled out a second shield, this time with the Crest of Zhoria - A white backdrop with a stone brick. "Got shields for days! Well, only these two. But days!"
"Sure. Days." I nodded and watched him run towards the main gate of Zhoria, where I had entered with Josie two days prior.
Two awake days.
I held the shield above my head and ran down the street, occasionally taking glances at the map. Once or twice I ran into a building, but the overhead shield that stuck out before me made it so I stopped short and lost balance instead of smashing my nose into solid stone. I eventually came to a stop in front of a large stone wall, the entire street bare except for a couple of lamps lining the street. They hadn't built actual lamps from the update, so they were stuck with glowstone and trapdoors.
I took out my iron pickaxe and began to break through the stone, nervously looking around for anyone in sight. Eventually, I looked back while I was mining at the same time, and took a step forward without looking where I was walking, taking a fall down a flight of stairs and taking a heart of falling damage.
I scrambled up, spitting my red scarf out of my mouth. I held my shield up and switched the pickaxe for my frying pan. I moved down the dark tunnel, startled at basically any noise that echoed the tunnel - which was mostly my own footsteps.
Until I heard the unmistakable footsteps of an iron golem.
How did I recognize them easily? I mean, I did travel with Josie for a month and a half. I feel like I could recognize anything revolving around golems by now.
I jogged in that direction, eventually meeting a stone wall. I broke through it and spilled into a prison room. It was built primarily of stone bricks, with cells locked up with iron bars. Blinking twice, I realized that at least 20 pillagers had turned to me. Simultaneously, they loaded their crossbows and raised them.
I quickly built a wall of dirt and hid behind it, hearing twenty twangs and every arrow hitting the dirt. I looked into my pouch, trying to find if I had anything to throw them off. Then I remembered a trick up my sleeve that every Wandering Trader has.
I reached into my backpack, looking for the potion of Invisibility that traders can naturally spawn every week. We can only spawn up to one at a time, and I had jsed mine last week in an encounter with a witch. I pulled out the glass bottle and drank it. It tasted faintly sweet, sending tingles down my spine, making me invisible save for the faint particles around me. Knowing the pillagers can't actually make sense of the particles - as far as I knew, they were just mobs - I ran right through them, making sure that I didn't touch any of them.
I looked around the prison, seeing all of the golems and people in cells. Eventually, I saw Meta and Clodir in a cell together. Meta was playing rock-paper-scissors with himself, cheering on whenever the left hand won. Clodir had taken interest in the pillagers down the hall, squinting and trying to see what got their attention. They were both without their items, enclosed in a chest barely out of reach.
I broke the bars to the cell and walked in, leading to two very confused looks. I cleared my throat and whispered "It's me, Gimero. We need to get out of here with the golems-"
"How'd you get in here?" Meta asked, not caring to lower his voice. Clodir clamped a hand around his mouth, but the Pillagers had already noticed and started towards our direction.
"Listen, is there a button or lever that releases all the cells?" I asked quickly, and got a quick response back.
"Yes. There's a control room, somewhere to the right." Clodir pointed down a hallway. "It's heavily guarded, though." She pushed past me and grabbed her items quickly, twirling her axes and getting ready for the pillagers that were coming. Meta eagerly got his items and told her "I'll protect Gimero - you keep them off us!"
"Sure, kid." She rolled her eyes. "Just get us out of here."
"Hopefully." I muttered, only for Meta to clap me on the shoulder, hard.
"C'mon! I haven't had excersice in ages!" He bemoaned loudly.
"It's been a day-"
"AGES..."
"Yeah, sure. Ages."
BanjoNote: This chapter was also planned to be longer, but I decided to make this chapter a normal sized one and next chapter be the epic battle.
Riley can teleport at will? Sounds familiar, no? Wonder what that could POSSIBLY mean...
Next Chapter: Take Back the Night, P2! Until then, Read, Review, Favourite and Follow! And, as always, Banjo-on!