Chapter 33: Teras' Call to Action
Celia was fighting back tears. She'd finished telling the story of the Ender Forge, the aftermath, and the plague to Rot and Dusk, who were dead silent by the end. Her arms trembled, her chest was tight. Even though she barely remembered her mother, the pain her father felt at her loss had rubbed off.
"It's okay… if you need to let it out, you can." Melissa, still holding her hands, spoke gentler than Celia had ever heard her.
She took a deep breath, then looked to the chiefs. "I… I'm okay. Please do not think the world outside this forest is a bleak one; especially in Luxmouth, we have always tried to be optimistic for the future. But there have been too many tragedies already, and we cannot let the Usurpation cause another."
Dusk was about to reply, but he was cut off by the toll of a bell. He glanced at Rot, who was already digging something out from under his mat. It was a sword, made of chipped stone.
"Is something wrong?" Melissa asked.
Rot crouched low to the floor. "Someone rang the alarm. Illagers must be nearby. Get down and stay quiet until they pass."
They did as told, but the explosion which rocked the tunnels a few moments later suggested it wouldn't be that simple. Dusk sprang to his feet and bolted from the room, with Rot right behind him.
Celia drew her sword. "Has the village been found? They'll be overrun!"
She ran after the chiefs, acutely aware Melissa was right behind her. There was no point telling her not to follow; she would anyway. Celia just had to trust her not to get into the fight, given her lack of training.
Keeping up with Dusk and Rot, they reached the room full of items to find a brawl already underway. A pillager lay dead in the middle of the pile, but otherwise the fight wasn't going well. Blake was facing off against a pair of vindicators, nearly backed into a corner. Felix had built a short barricade out of logs, behind which he, Cupa, and a tiny girl with black hair were hiding while two pillagers shot arrows their way. To make matters worse, even more Illagers were jumping into the chamber from a hole in the ceiling.
Rot and Dusk joined the fray immediately, rushing to assist Cupa. Celia wanted to go with them, but Blake was in a greater predicament, so she charged toward his attackers from behind.
"Above you, Celia!" Melissa yelled.
She was too late to avoid the splash potion which broke at her feet. In an instant her whole body felt as if weighed down by obsidian. Just taking a step was a struggle, and her planned ambush was ruined. In the corner of her eye she spotted a witch hopping down to join them, drawing another potion from her sleeve with a cackle.
"Slowness! I can't defend myself!"
The witch didn't get a chance to follow up before an arrow struck her side. She gasped and lurched right into a slash from Melissa, who'd swung so hard she nearly stumbled over as well. A pillager leaped in from above, bringing up his crossbow toward her, and Celia still wasn't fast enough to react.
Once again, help came from somewhere to the left. A second arrow whizzed past and struck the pillager's crossbow, making him accidentally shoot his loaded bolt into the floor. While he fumbled for another one, Melissa lunged for him as well, but this time she wasn't so lucky. He was able to dodge her wild strike and bluntly punched her in the face.
Celia could feel her body returning to its normal speed, but she wouldn't be able to muster a quick stab to protect Melissa, who had dropped her sword and was clutching her nose. Instead, as the pillager was loading his crossbow, she threw a small fireball at him. He was only a few blocks away, so even her reduced speed made dodging it impossible for him. The tiny flame did little more than singe his large forehead, but it was enough of a distraction: another arrow came from the side, this time quite literally hitting the pillager head-on. He toppled over, landing at Celia's feet.
At last the potion's effects wore off, and she could reassess the skirmish. The arrows had come from Cupa, who was taking aim with her bow from behind the log barrier. Rot and Dusk were finishing off the pillagers who'd been attacking her, the latter with his bare hands- scratch that, with a set of talons protruding from his fingers. Felix had circled around to help Blake and was axe-to-axe with one of the vindicators.
The patrol must have run out of manpower, for the final Illager waiting above was an Evoker. Celia only saw him for a second before he disappeared from view, retreating into the forest as the last of the attackers were dealt with.
"Is anyone hurt?" Rot asked, tossing aside the broken hilt of his wooden sword. "Cupa?"
"A-a little shaken up, but I'm okay." She lowered her bow, checking on the small girl who'd hidden near her. "They're gone, Mindy."
Felix had an arrow stuck in his chestplate, which luckily didn't seem to have actually harmed him. Blake wasn't so fortunate: the last parts of his diamond armor were broken, and he was clutching an open wound on his side. "Ugh… how'd I let him sneak in a hit?"
Melissa, still rubbing her nose, scooped up a handful of potions the witch had dropped and gave one to Blake. "Drink this, it'll help."
"You sure?" he asked, grimacing. "It's not labeled. That could be anything."
"I know potions. Just drink it."
The injury looked serious, so he didn't argue more than that. Sure enough, once he'd gulped it down, there was no trace of the wound other than a dark red stain on his shirt.
"There's a problem," Celia told Dusk. "One of them escaped. I expect he will alert the rest of the Illagers, now that they know where your town is."
"How'd they even find us? They've passed us by plenty of times before," Rot asked.
Felix was kneeling by the dead witch, inspecting something she'd dropped with a frown. "I've never seen one of these. What could it be?"
Everyone gathered around him to take a look. The item was shaped like a compass, but without a needle. Instead, its face sported a few blinking white dots. Beside each dot, in miniscule text, were the labels "H-B3," "H-E93," "H-I264," and "N-B51." Celia noticed the latter three in particular were very close to the center. H-B3, meanwhile, pointed to something behind them- a quick glance revealed Mindy was holding a purple Genesis Core, likely the dirt one Cupa had mentioned.
When Celia looked at the numbers again, she gasped. "It's a Core tracker!"
"How can you tell?" asked Felix.
"These three correspond to our positions. I have the Fire Core, Felix has the Diamond Core, and Melissa still has the shulker box with the Lightning Core. The one off to the side is the… er, the Dirt Core."
Blake squinted as he tried to read the labels. "You got all that just from this? I don't have a clue what these letters and numbers mean."
"I think they're written in Bedrock Index," she explained. "It's a system of categorizing objects. 'B' refers to a type of block, 'I' is an item, and 'E' is an uncommon tag given to entities fitting neither description- in this case, a lightning bolt. The codes can be a bit convoluted, so it isn't used very often anymore. I had to learn about it during my history lessons regardless… it took quite a bit of memorization. Though, I am not sure what the 'H' and 'N' refer to."
All of the others were giving her bewildered looks. It even seemed to have gone over Felix's head.
"T-the point is, the Illagers must have found Teras by tracking the stolen Dirt Core with this. And since one got away, there will be another attack soon enough."
Cupa blanched. "So they'll be able to find us again if we keep it?"
"We won't have time to relocate the whole village before they return," Rot groaned. "What're we going to do?"
Dusk wiped his talons on one of the dead vindicator's coats. "We'll have to take the fight to them first. If we're going to make a stand, now's the chance."
Nobody seemed thrilled at the idea, even though they'd discussed something to the effect before, but now there was no other choice. They would have to raid an Illager mansion.
"We need more armor over here!"
"I'm on it, Blake," Felix said, not looking up from the crafting table.
Teras was bustling. Those too young to fight were being escorted to deeper caverns to hide, protected by a scant few of the older residents. All others were mobilizing for the raid, gearing up with literally anything the town had in store- which wasn't much. Felix had taken on the job of preparing new weapons and armor from TOEC's donations, but even the stacks of iron and diamonds provided wouldn't be enough to fully equip the Turned. There was some leather in the pile- better than nothing, but the thought of entering a woodland mansion in it didn't inspire much confidence.
"Absolutely not! It's too dangerous!"
"You're more important than I am; why do you get to join the attack?"
Celia and Melissa were arguing off to the side, the former not taking much care to keep her voice down. Felix didn't want to say anything.
"You don't have any weapons training, and we'll be up against heavily-armed opponents. If they single you out, you won't be able to defend yourself."
"Let me have one of the Genesis Cores, then. We can't use the flame or lightning ones in a wooden building, right? That just leaves the one with the dirt. I bet I can make good use of it."
Celia groaned. "Not if you only just picked it up! These abilities take time to adjust to!"
"She's right," Blake said. "We don't know what exactly it's capable of, and the middle of a battle isn't a great time to test that out. Then again, it didn't stop me back on the island…"
"Don't second guess yourself now, Blake. We didn't have a choice at the time," Celia all but barked at him. "Melissa… I can't let you-"
"Begging your pardon, Countess, but technically we're here on TOEC business," she shot back. "You're all here to accompany me and lend a hand in negotiations. Not to mention, you're nobility. If you got killed in my stead, how's that going to reflect on my family?"
Felix couldn't believe she'd dared to pull that card. Celia, judging by her astonished gasp, couldn't either. But she didn't get a chance to object.
"And… if something happened to you when I could've done anything to help, how do you think that'd make me feel?" Melissa's voice was much gentler all of a sudden.
"…ugh… you had to go there, didn't you? Honestly, you can be impossible- don't think I didn't hear you holding back a snort, Blake! You agree Melissa won't be safe in a head-on assault, yes?"
"Actually, none of you will be going in through the front."
The four of them looked at Cupa, who'd returned from helping the children evacuate. She was stuffing more arrows into a hidden pocket of her cloak. Felix was impressed; even though she didn't have a personal inventory, she still found a good way to carry items.
"The chiefs are going to lead most of the Turned who can fight to the main entrance. They'll try to draw the Illagers' attention that way. Meanwhile, I'll be leading a smaller group to break into the mansion another way." Cupa gave them a hopeful grin. "I know I can't really tell you what to do, but I think it'd be a good idea to have you with me for that."
"There's a problem with us going that way," said Blake. "The tracker we picked up can see Celia's Fire Core, even though she's wearing Usurpation armor that's enchanted to stop that from happening. If the Illagers have more like it, they'll notice anyone with a Genesis Core who's trying to sneak around the side."
Felix hadn't even considered that in the aftermath of the fight. The technology was different, so it stood to reason her chestplate would be useless to keep the Core hidden from Illager trackers. By extension, they'd also see him coming, and that gave him an idea. He looked at Blake and Melissa in turn. "The two of you don't have Genesis Cores. You can join the side group while Lady Celia and I attack from the front."
"Deep in the mansion, without much equipment or any Cores? If you know your stuff about potions, you could be a big help there," Blake told Melissa. "Sounds like a good idea to me. And I've fought Illagers plenty of times, so I'll keep you covered."
Celia groaned. "Why does this have to make so much sense…? Fine! But if she has so much as a scratch after this, the Illagers will be the least of your worries!"
With that she stomped out of the room in a huff.
"I like her," Cupa giggled. "Very feisty."
"I'm sorry you had to hear all that. Felix, would you look after her?" asked Melissa.
He shrugged. "I think I'm developing a talent for it."
Another hour passed before Teras' impromptu militia was ready, or as ready as it could be. The armor shortage was compounded by another problem: many of their forces wouldn't be able to even wear it into battle. Former spiders and creepers relied on mobility, while slime Turned had trouble standing with the extra weight of iron. That just left those who'd once been zombies and skeletons, and even they couldn't all be supplied with full suits. On the plus side, just about everyone had an iron sword or axe. Dusk, the only former phantom, would fight with his talons, but not many others were so capable.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen anyone who looks like they were an Enderman. The stories say they're awfully strong, but I guess the Illagers never captured any. Too bad; one might've come in handy about now…"
Felix had never seen one of the dark beings in person. They were supposedly rare in the Overworld during the Legendary Heroes' time, but nowadays their presence was almost nonexistent. Whatever world they came from must have been more appealing after the death of the Ender Dragon so long ago.
"…Steve and Alex…"
Thinking of them made him shiver. The encounter with whoever that was under Tenebyss was still on his mind, and Felix was still fairly certain he'd actually been killed in those caves. But he was no closer to understanding what had really happened.
"Okay everyone, gather around!"
Rot had called from outside of the hole, where the attack force was assembling once equipped. Felix climbed out to join them, followed by Cupa and the rest of his companions. From another hole dug into the village, Celia emerged still looking more than a little miffed.
"I hope she'll get over that in time for the battle…"
About thirty fighters were assembled, many of which Felix had seen in Cupa's party earlier. They all looked nervous as Rot stood atop a pile of dirt to address them.
"Teras has been found, and the Illagers will come for us again soon enough. We're going to beat them to the punch by attacking their mansion. This is our chance to strike back and free the rest of the Turned in there. Our new allies will be assisting us."
"The entrance will be guarded," someone said. "Are we going to force our way in like on the last rescue mission?"
Dusk spoke up. "The Illagers have adapted to our previous attempts to infiltrate the mansion. A direct attack will draw their forces to the front, while a smaller team breaks in from below. They can free the prisoners in the confusion, then rejoin us to corner the Illagers. Cupa will be leading this team."
"If there's anyone who wants to join me, I could use the help. Blake and Melissa will also be coming along," she announced.
A few other Turned stepped forward. Felix recognized Maxil, the former skeleton who'd been with Cupa earlier. There was also a man in a creeper-themed cloak like hers, a woman with skin as green and soft-looking as Jels', and a younger girl who appeared to have been a husk- a variant of zombie typically found in the desert.
"Seven of us, then," Cupa said, counting them off.
Felix turned to Blake and held out the tracker. "Take this with you. If they have more Genesis Cores in there, maybe you can find them."
"Sure, but I have no idea what any of these numbers mean. We'll need to figure out which one is which the old fashioned way."
"Just try not to blow up in the process," he half-joked.
"The rest of us will be entering through the front," Rot announced once Cupa's team had been decided. "We'll clear and secure the halls one at a time. If everyone's ready, let's move out."
They began their march toward the mansion, and toward whatever the Illagers had in store.
Note from the author:
Fun fact, a woodland mansion raid was one of the very first ideas I had in mind since I started this story over a year and a half ago, as is the concept of Teras. With that said, the next chapter is going to be a long one- depending on how long, I may have to split it into two parts like I did with Deep Dark! Because of that it may take a little longer to come out, but I'll do my best not to keep you waiting. As always, thank you for reading!