BOOK X: THE LEGENDARY HEROES
Chapter 53: The Fugitive
Prior to the Battle of Incursia…
Gwendolyn the Diamond Knight, for a great many reasons, had never found it easy to express herself. Even with the Netherrack Network, her band of loyal followers who would follow her anywhere, she hadn't been able to truly open up to them. How could she have, when her entire life was a lie? Telling the truth about herself and offering up her greatest secret would ruin their image of the Diamond Knight, of the valiant hero who inspired them and many others to be brave in the face of adversity. And if the stories passed down about Gwendolyn eventually replaced those about Alexandra, well, that was just another bonus in her eyes.
But as she and her mustered army rode through the desert toward the Usurpation's fortress city, Gwendolyn knew there was somebody she did want to share the truth with. Countess Celia Lumis was somewhere behind her, riding with her small band as they made conversation and tried to keep their nerves steady for the battle to come. They were young, far too young to fight and possibly die for Gwendolyn's liking, yet times were difficult and they'd made their choice. She would respect it, even if she didn't agree with it.
What she couldn't stand for was the thought of them dying as they tried to live up to the stories of Alex. She'd seen the Countess break down before leaving, her ideals clashing with the ugly reality they faced- and that Gwendolyn herself had contributed to by initially dismissing the notion that she was a hero. In their eyes she saw a bright future for the Overworld, and she didn't want them to have the wrong idea about who had preceded them.
Nobody was watching her. Gwendolyn opened a leather book, took out a quill, and began to write the message she would leave with Celia and company.
"Countess,
As I write this, we march toward the Usurpation Army's fortress. There is so much I wish I could say, and so much I believe you deserve to know, but I lack the time to record it all here. If we prevail and lock down the city, I plan to speak with you and your friends in person, but even I cannot say what will happen for certain. Therefore, should things go poorly, I have decided to share with you the truth about me.
The truth is that I am not who I claim to be. 'Gwendolyn' is nothing more than a cover for my original identity, the one I have hoped to suppress for hundreds of years now. The one I revile, yet the rest of the world celebrates.
My real name is Alexandra. I will tell you the true story of the Legendary Heroes."
Far to the south…
Alice's mission in life, in the three years since she'd set off on her travels, had become to learn as much of the world's history as she could.
Raised by villagers in a small, remote town, she had always wondered what the lands beyond her home offered. She'd explored the nearby regions with her old group of friends time and time again, and rarely did their searches yield more than mob dens or ore veins- worthwhile discoveries to be sure, yet none which really gripped her. The findings Alice truly savored were the abandoned mine shafts and hidden ruins, those remnants of some ancient intelligent design which made her wonder who might have been there before, and what sorts of lives they led.
Each member of her friend group had a unique interest they would pursue on every outing. Mark was always the first to jump at a fight, eager to hone his skills against mobs. Adam appreciated the loot of exploration, and knew the most about how and where to dig for rarer treasures like diamonds. Lauren was an expert at building who could always be counted on to put even the more obscure materials to good use. And Blake…
"Blake…"
As she examined her notebook in the dull light of her lantern, she realized she hadn't thought about him in a while. He'd kept the group together in a sense, always being the one to organize and plan their expeditions (sometimes a little too much, as his tendency to overanalyze things occasionally led to him spending minutes at a time on very small decisions). Beyond that, however, it was his enthusiasm for spending time with the others which made him the heart of their small gang. Yet as they matured into young adults, as their interests began diverging too much for them to enjoy their outings the same way they had as children, he never changed. Alice saw how the growing distance affected him, but Blake would never be the one to voice his woes.
Was he still in that small village, waiting for the day when their group could go on another adventure together? She'd hidden a letter for him, but she had no way of knowing if he would even find it, let alone heed her advice to find his own place in the world.
"I guess all I can do is hope for him…"
"Everything okay? You've been staring at that page for a few minutes now."
She looked up at Matthew Oakeson, the sole other occupant of the tent, who was sketching out a map of the area they'd explored recently at her side. His focus on the task never wavered, and Alice wasn't sure how he'd noticed her own lapse in concentration. She shrugged and went back to jotting down notes about the day's travels.
"Ah, I'm just reflecting a little. We've come a long way, haven't we?"
Matthew was a villager, and he was Alice's partner in every sense of the word. They'd met a year into her travels, when she stumbled across his seaside town to the south of her old home. As an aspiring cartographer, he had taken interest in her goal of seeing new places and learning their histories, expressing his own dream to map out the entire world. When Alice departed the village after a few weeks' stay, he followed her. Just over two years since then, the journey had brought them much further south in the Overworld, furthering their goals every step of the way. Lofty as their ambitions were, the pair still had plenty of time ahead of them- she was 19, he was 20.
"I'll say," Matthew replied, adjusting his monocle with a smile. "And it hasn't always been easy… but I wouldn't give it up for anything."
She leaned up and pecked him on the cheek. "That's the spirit. What do you say tomorrow we find another town to stock up at?
He chuckled and leaned into the kiss. "Sure, as long as this one actually has people living in it. That'd be a nice change of pace."
Indeed, the pair had noticed a bizarre pattern over the last few months. Their current heading was very far southeast from where she'd originally left home, and many of the settlements they'd come across in that region bore an uncanny air of which even the residents were acutely aware. The larger cities were more often than not underpopulated for their sizes, and some of the smaller towns and villages were devoid of life altogether.
Stranger still, the people they did find never claimed to have been the original residents. Rather, they were typically the first or second generations of travelers who had moved into settlements which seemed to have been completely abandoned decades prior. It wasn't unheard of for large groups of people to uproot and move, yet to see such a thing in so many different settlements was suspicious. Even so, the residents they met were just as confused by the phenomenon, and didn't give off the impression of trying to hide anything from the pair. The people of one large city recalled a mining corporation known as Beryl Ore Excavation relocating further north some 17 years prior, but even they hadn't been the first ones to live there.
Alice and Matthew had searched high and low for an explanation, only to come up short every time. The completely abandoned settlements were the most perplexing of all, as despite going largely untouched by the outside world they still showed next to no evidence pointing toward the fates of their former inhabitants. None of the telltale signs of mob swarms were present; in fact, mobs were rarely interested in the ghost towns at all. The pair never uncovered hidden documents or records which suggested sudden evacuations or calamitous losses of life, only the occasional discarded tools and derelict houses which hadn't seen maintenance in years.
Try as they might have to learn what had really happened, they only ever came away with the impression that hundreds or even thousands of people across numerous settlements had simply left their homes behind all at once.
"Once we have more supplies," Alice continued, "I think we should head-"
She was cut off by a high, raspy shriek from somewhere outside of their campsite. It was followed by a series of guttural snarls and growls, unmistakably made by zombies on the attack.
"What was that? They're not gonna get near us, are they?" Matthew had sat straight up, fumbling for his crossbow.
Alice, shivering in anticipation, found an iron blade in her inventory. "They wouldn't be able to break through the wall, so the real question is what does have their attention."
A struggle could be heard. Whatever had shrieked was taking hard, stumbling steps against the dry grass of the savanna they'd set up camp in as it tried to fend off the zombies.
"They need our help," Alice declared, getting up and donning her leather armor. She wasn't much of a fighter- in fact, she'd been the least versed in combat of her old friends- but she couldn't bear the idea of sitting there and listening to whoever was outside be killed.
Matthew took a deep breath and loaded the crossbow. "A-all right, but we're not gonna take on more than we're able to."
"We'll be careful," she agreed. "C'mon, let's take a look."
She exited the tent, stepping into the savanna biome's cool nighttime air. In typical fashion, the two of them had erected a cobblestone wall around their tent with overhangs to prevent mobs from getting inside. They'd built a makeshift watchtower at one corner, with a ladder which Alice climbed to take a look at the commotion.
And what a commotion it was. Half a dozen zombies had encircled their target: a creature more than a block taller than Alice, yet much thinner and nearly pitch black in color. Almost its entire body was covered by a segmented exoskeleton, not unlike that of a silverfish or a creeper's mossy shell, albeit much smoother in texture. It swiped at one of the mobs which had come into reach and punched it back, only to be struck from behind when another zombie lunged with its claws. The creature let out another pained rasp and spun to fend it off, revealing a pair of narrow, bright green eyes on its dark face. A patchy, brown leather satchel was slung around its torso.
"That's… what IS that?" Matthew gasped once he'd joined her in the tower.
Alice wasn't sure, but what she did notice was the creature was seriously injured: its right arm had been severed just above the elbow, and the wound was spewing a green, misty substance.
"Just try to pick off some zombies, will you? I'll get down there and help it out."
She scrambled down the ladder before Matthew could reply and broke through the wall with a stone pickaxe. The creature spotted her, its eyes briefly widening, but it couldn't focus on Alice before another zombie tried to sneak in an attack.
"Hang on, we're gonna help you!" she shouted, unsure if it even knew what she was saying.
As she drew near with her sword clutched, she realized something odd about the mobs: they were showing more coordination than typical zombies, taking turns striking at the dark creature. Their eyes were different as well, emitting a pale violet glow. Yet they went down as easily as ever; a hard thrust through the back was all it took for her to incapacitate one of them. Matthew shot another from the tower, and the dark creature managed to put a third down for good with a firm strike to the head. Working together, the three of them dealt with all six zombies without much trouble.
"All clear, Matt!" Alice called out when the last mob had fallen. She wiped sweat from her forehead and turned to the thing she'd just stepped in to help. "You're… you're hurt, r-right?"
The creature cradled its arm, which continued to spray green mist, but before she could ask how to care for the injury, something flashed into view a few blocks away from them. It took a step back, grumbling to itself.
"Alice, l-look!"
Her breath caught at the sight of the newcomer. It was another tall, dark figure, only with both arms intact and wearing plated armor of some unfamiliar purple material over most of its black exoskeleton. Alice wondered if it had come to retrieve its lost fellow, a question which was swiftly dashed when the thing abruptly warped closer to them and punched at the injured one.
"Hey, stop that!" she yelled. She got between them with her sword raised as the wounded one lurched back. The tall, armored warrior opened its mouth to a terrifying width, revealing two rows of long teeth and letting out a harsh scream.
Alice's composure broke. In the face of such a threat, she couldn't help but shakily lower her blade and stumble out of its way as it advanced on the injured thing.
"I can't just stand here… I can't, I can't… but… I'm so scared… what would the others do?" A subsequent thought made her gasp. "What would Blake do?"
He may have been hesitant to commit to decisions when it came to planning, but his heart was always the biggest of theirs. She knew exactly what he would have done in her place.
The armored one had passed her by, largely brushing Alice off. As it raised a hand to strike its cowering target, she lunged at it from behind with a stab. It spun on its heel and caught her blade by the flat edge with its long arms, and when she looked into its green eyes it hissed with rage. She couldn't wrench her sword free of its grip, but to her surprise the wounded creature came to her rescue, warping up to it and slamming its remaining hand into the back of its head. Its whole body jolted from the impact, and Alice was able to push her blade forward to scrape across its torso just beneath the spot where its chestplate ended.
With a screech, the warrior jumped back from her and clutched the wound. It didn't look deep, but green mist was emitting from the cut fast enough to make their enemy look between them warily. The armored creature gave the injured one a glare and spoke one more time, then disappeared in another flash of emerald light.
"Is it gone?" Matthew asked from the tower. He was aiming his crossbow every which way, and even from the ground Alice could see how tense he looked. Neither of them were used to fighting mobs stronger than zombies or spiders, and brief as the encounter was, it had been more harrowing than anything they'd endured recently.
"I-I think so!" she called back. A moment later, he had climbed down and exited into the open savanna with her, still looking scared senseless.
The victim had slid to the ground against the wall, still holding the stump of its right arm. When it realized there were no more enemies nearby, the thing hung its head and let out a quiet wheeze of a sigh.
All at once, its identity clicked for Alice. Dark features, tall and thin, teleportation… she'd been too caught up in the fight to really process what she was dealing with, but as things calmed down there was no mistaking it. She'd heard countless stories about such beings, even if she hadn't ever encountered one herself.
"You're… an Enderman, aren't you?" she asked, unsure if it could even understand her- she certainly couldn't tell what the armored one had been saying.
The Enderman slowly looked up at her, its bright green eyes scrunched in a tired and sad grimace. It opened its mouth and croaked out: "Thank you for your help. But the two of you have put yourselves in grave danger by associating with me."