Chapter 87: Raised Sword

Perspective: Narrator

They arrived in the hall through Shadow's portal. First, Tyron Dragoknight, hero of Minecraftia jumped out, his sword Kir glowing in his hand. Then came Kay Mandy, the ruined General, wincing as his leg struck the ground and trying to disguise his hobble as he backed away to make room for others. Amanda followed next, barely seeming to notice her own arrival, contemplating a small shard of brass in her hand. Fire, leader of the Mencur-Besh, strode out immediately after, nimbly stepping around the grieving teenager in search of other leadership. And, lastly, she emerged: the mage known as Shadow, her white hair and black robes flowing softly as she moved. Behind her the fabric of reality nestled back into its resting state as the portal vanished.

Tyron raised his eyes to the hall's high ceiling and couldn't shake the feeling that the buttresses and chandeliers were sneering down at them. To him, the building's architecture fluttered between indifferent monumentality and a malignant intimacy, as though the inhabitants were insects, and the building a cruel child. All of it only served to make the staircase at the hall's end even more immense and insurmountable. He shuddered, then found his gaze dropping suddenly as Kay ran past him.

"My lord!" he yelled.

All the new arrivals found themselves taken aback at the sight before them. Blood spattered the walls and tattered bodies lay everywhere. Soldiers moved back and forth, trying to clean them away. Amanda jolted back into awareness when she saw Dinnerbone lay slumped and twitching on a rattling chest. A large, dented set of obsidian doors hung open at the far end of the hallway, the scorch marks and gun smoke scent of TNT fresh upon them.

Their friends all stood in a circle, normally enough. Astro the Wizard adjusted his rings and muttered into his sleeve and shot a thankful look at Shadow as she entered. The adventurers, Steve Brine and Jennifer, held hands and contemplated the comings and goings of the soldiers. Steve wore a strange set of grey armour, and a large wooden shield hung from his arm. Jennifer, meanwhile, still wore her diamond armour, but clasped a massive ghastbone bow in her right hand.

A bit off to the side stood the lightly armoured form of Rose, the assassin who had helped blaze the trail for the Shelter in the early days, and who had cut open the Tower's walls in the aerial assault. She looked on calmly, but not as calmly as she perhaps wanted.

All of this was expected, considering the cataclysm unfolding around them. Even then, they could hear the distant roar as worlds were degraded that they might be stitched back toward. Outside, a terrible wind howled. In an apocalypse, one might expect a group of dour-faced heroes to stand in a circle, reflecting on the task ahead. What was not expected, however, was the man lying in their midst.

Herobrine, the Blind Watcher, a god walking among them, lay on the ground with white eyes clenched shut and sweat soaking his hair and beard. A small cut puckered on his forehead, blood pulsing outwards and mixing with the blood on the floor.

"Freak," Kir chirped in Tyron's mind.

The General threw himself to his knees and began to shake his fallen master.

"No, no, please!" he muttered. His eyes began to water, and he clenched them shut. "Please wake up..."

Steve and Jennifer threw a glance down at him and exchanged an uncomfortable glance. Astro's eyes flared with disdain, then he looked away and began to fiddle with his rings again, something like pity cooling the coals of anger within him.

"So, the machine has been activated," Astro said quickly, "I've provisionally instructed people to keep up the assault on the Throne Room, but tell me honestly, do we have a chance of undoing this?"

"Yeah," Jennifer agreed. "The troops deserve to know. Are we still fighting to stop Freak or are we just securing the Tower and hoping for the best?"

Shadow spoke up: "There is a way we can stop Freak. We need to get to the switch, break through its protective panels and turn it off."

"Okay," Astro breathed and began to shift from foot to foot. "Our plan stays the same. We get to the switch and stop Freak from flicking it on. We just add the minor step of flicking it off first…"

With slight hesitation Shadow said: "Yes, but that is just the first step. Dr. Mercury is on our side now and agreed to help with the second step. Once the machine is off, she will replace the piece of the Entity that is in the machine with… she'll replace it with a piece of me. If the machine is turned on after that, Nexus begins collapsing and the other worlds are safe."

"Okay, added minor step of flicking it back on again," Astro muttered. "Still doable."

Steve had been nodding along, but now his head snapped suddenly in Shadow's direction.

"Wait, Nexus starts collapsing?" he asked.

"Starts is the important part, she made it sound like it'll take a while."

"And you're sure Mercury is on our side?" Jennifer asked. "No chance she's trying to screw us over?"

Fire chimed in: "She figured out the Entity's plan before Freak took over and she was absolutely shattered by the realization. She doesn't have any loyalties towards Freak either. Not the type to randomly cause problems. We can at the very least trust her to have told the truth as far as she understands it."

Tyron tapped his foot impatiently.

"I'm sorry guys, but we don't have time to argue about this. If we don't stop Freak, there's no do-over. If we have to die to stop everything from becoming an endless nightmare torture prison, that's just how it is."

"No other way," Kir agreed. "What heroes do."

Steve seemed about to say something very angrily, then stopped himself when Jennifer squeezed his hand. They exchanged a meaningful look, and a small, sad smile began to creep across his face.

"Well, so much for happy endings… as though we haven't lost enough today," chuckled another voice.

Kay had sat up, lifting his head from Herobrine's breastplate. He cast a dark look over at Dinnerbone slumped over the rattling chest. Amanda was shaking his shoulder and trying to wake him up, her eyes heavy with emotion.

Something dawned on Rose. Her usual calm cracked and splintered. Suddenly, she grabbed Fire's arm.

"Where's Warnado?"

Kay's head drooped once more. Tyron ran his fingers through his fur and clenched his teeth. No one said anything for what felt like millennia. Shadow looked around, as if trying to confirm her own feelings with the looks on the others' faces. Finally, Fire spoke up in a carefully measured tone.

"In the corridor before the machine we were ambushed by five bedrock golems. He made full use of his demonic side to buy us time… and collapsed the ceiling on himself and the golems."

Astro squinted, not quite seeming to comprehend what he had heard. A look of horror spread across Steve and Jennifer's face. Without hesitation the red-headed archer discarded the bow Fire had gifted her and sprinted over to Amanda. The teenager turned just in time for Jennifer's body to slam into her. Jennifer's powerful arms took Amanda into their embrace. She began to cry. Rose followed shortly after, placing a soft hand on the back of Amanda's neck, then stooping to stroke her hair.

Astro's eyes followed this scene in a stupor before he blinked and suddenly looked in the other direction. His gaze fell on Kay, who was now straining to get up off Herobrine. His leg was giving him trouble again, and he barely suppressed his grunts of effort and discomfort. A set of well-worn fingers shot past his heavy fringe and stopped in front of his face. He looked up. Astro stood over him, a pained smile on his face. The General took his hand and rose. He drew his sword, ran it along his brace and inspected the edge.

"Well, how are we killing him?" Kay asked.

"Urist says this route leads pretty directly to the throne room. From what we can tell it's not defended," Astro answered. "But with Freak… who knows?"

Kay nodded and looked around.

"Where is Urist, by the way?"

"Attack's still ongoing," Steve entered. "He's building up fortifications where he can. Voidblade's teleporting him for speed's sake."

"Hm… Mainly I'm wondering, should we attack now or wait for reinforcements?" he pressed.

Tyron adjusted the knob on his earpiece.

"Officers, what's the status on the attack?"

Lucy's voice came through the radio: "Tower perimeter is fully secured, all stragglers either killed, captured, surrendered, or fled into the Tower early. I have reports that both General Issa and Archmage Wisp are not yet neutralised, some golems are still active, but otherwise it looks like we are gaining the upper hand."

Tyron cast a look at Astro.

"Forgelight?" Kir asked on his wielder's behalf.

"My Guild and the Eye-and-Claws are leading the pursuit of Issa. Forgelight is dead."

"Thanks, Lucy," said Tyron. He looked at Fire. "Well, that all sounds pretty great for us, but something tells me there's a reason we shouldn't just wait for an elite Mencur-Besh dunk squad to back us up."

Fire stroked his chin.

"I am not sure if we want the collective in Freak's reach. If they're linked up, Freak could just get one of them and do whatever he did to Herobrine to the entire collective. And, if they break the link beforehand… It's unknown what happens when the collective breaks the link when so many of its bodies are dead. Besides, most troops are still tied up in battles, so if we want the best shot at getting out of this with all worlds intact, we have few choices but to attack now. The timeframe on the machine is restrictive as it is." He paused, deliberating. "It looks like it's up to just us again."

"Of course it is," Steve laughed.

Tyron groaned and Steve clapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, buddy, don't worry, it's what heroes do, right?"

Tyron laughed in exasperation and punched him in the pauldron.

"Hey, the sword said that, not me!"

"Pffft, like you guys don't coordinate your messages!"

Steve gestured over his shoulder and began to walk up towards the steps.

"Come on guys, no point waiting around!"

Kay and Astro began to follow him instinctively, with Tyron shaking his head and joining the march soon after. Jennifer and Rose had, by this time, stopped purely comforting Amanda, and were helping her put on the last piece of a similar set of grey armour to Steve's - only this had a lighter chestplate with a set of wings attached. Additionally, she had a stack of rockets in one hand, and a crossbow loaded with one of them in the other.

Rose clapped down on the helmet and patted Amanda on the back.

"You've got this, kid," smiled the assassin.

Amanda smiled involuntarily, and after a few seconds deliberation shot back:

"I know, I'll try not to save your ass too many times."

Jennifer laughed.

"Save it for the big bad phantom, Amanda."

Fire and Shadow quickly caught up and walked alongside the others.

Fire gave Steve a side glance and asked: "By the way, where did you get that set of netherite armour?"

Steve involuntarily laughed. "Of course you know what this stuff is, because why wouldn't you? I got it off… me from another world who made it his goal to be the last Steve standing. Spoke in text, almost killed us, weird encounter."

Amanda cocked an eyebrow at Jennifer.

"So, you didn't just 'find this in a chest'?"

"No, sorry, that's corpse armour."

"Great," Amanda bit the inside of her cheek. "Thank you so much."

They crested the stairs much sooner than they thought possible and found themselves walking down a hallway towards a circular door with a bronze disc at the centre of it. To either side were statues and tapestries. Down some corridors to either side they could catch glimpses of far-off combat. Golems grappling with their friends. Vanillans, Eye-and-Claws, Mencur-Besh, humans, villagers, pigmen, all assembled to ensure their success. It was hard to just move on by.

Steve rummaged through his pockets, inspecting the number of ender pearls he had left. Rose sorted through her knives. Runes on Shadow's skin flashed as she prepared spells, occasionally her skin would go beyond black as she channelled the Void. Kay began to repeatedly sharpen his sword against his armour, muttering his titles as a mantra:

"General. Commander. Lap Dog. Hero of Arcadia…" Then, in a sombre, still more hushed tone: "King in Ash."

Astro sidled up to Shadow, jimmying one of his rings further up his finger.

"You know, one advantage of the machine being turned on is that there's a lot more background energy swilling around. Almost filled them all back up already." He paused, then smiled genuinely. "Thanks for these."

Shadow nodded. "I thought I'd need these myself before I came here but turns out that was just the first thing that played out differently." With another pulse of beyond-black across her body she added: "Reality is denser here in the throne room, it might not tear like in other places."

Astro curled his mouth in satisfaction, then shot a sly look at Shadow.

"I mean, so long as Freak gets torn too, I'm sure reality won't mind."

She giggled, then realised the others had stopped. Fire gestured for silence, and they formed into a V-shape behind him. Tyron, Shadow, Rose, and Amanda on the one side. Kay, Steve, Jennifer, and Astro opposite. Fire drew his zweihander and crept forward, one hand outstretched, until his scaled fingers brushed the cold bronze disc at the door's centre. It began to turn. The door opened.

Inside, they saw darkness, only dimly illuminated by light from further within. They crept along, silent, and steady, all with their weapons drawn. Past display cases. Over obsidian and endstone tiles. Brushing against pedestals bearing strange artefacts and statues. Every here and there an accent of bronze alloy glinted.

Then, they entered an inner ring of rooms. Less bronze and endstone. More obsidian alloyed into metal. In the dark they saw a hologram depicting many worlds stutter on and off, lashing the walls with a blue light. At first, they assumed this was the source of the light they were following, but even when the hologram clicked out of view, something else kept the room half-visible. Jennifer moved to turn it off, but found the buttons shattered beyond recognition, perhaps crushed by a frantic bronze form realising its time was running out.

Finally, they saw the source of the light: two doorways lit by something otherworldly. Too orange and to be daylight, too golden in hue for a true twilight. Molten rays from some unknown point of origin. They steeled their nerves, filtered through the two entrances, and examined the room beyond.

Fire immediately recognised the Throne Room. The walls remained lined with bookcases, though much of the glass that sealed them had shattered, leaving the tomes within shredded and torn. It remained large and empty, with the throne on the far side, and the dimensional scar still shaking above as though struck with a fever. Behind the throne the edges of the activation switch's platform were visible.

He also recognised the staircase at the centre of the room, which he had fled up only a few days ago. However, where once it had led to an observatory, now it was broken off most of the way up, with an open view onto the sky of Nexus, with its stars which ruptured into worlds, and its black sky ignited by a burning yellow shade. Freak sat at the top, kicking his feet back and forth, luxuriating in the terror.

Everyone froze, uncertain how to respond to the phantom's presence. His yellow eyes shone and rolled beneath closed lids, and his lips were parted by slow, deep breaths. He looked serene. Could he see them?

Tyron looked around, gestured to the platform, then adopted a fighting stance as Kir counted down. Shadow charged a spell. Steve lifted his shield. Amanda trained her crossbow on Freak.

"Three. Two… One!"

They charged. A great roar challenged the howling of the winds above for dominance of the room. They had one goal, the activation mechanism which could end this. Shadow unleashed her spell and blasted the throne aside. It was in view! Only for obsidian panels to start rising like grotesque, unbreakable jaws.

Amanda loosed her rocket, spiralling up at Freak's stairtop perch. A second sent her bursting up into the air until she began to drop, and the air swelled her sail-like wings. She began to soar down at the activation mechanism. It was still in view despite the rising obsidian. She stifled a shocked laugh. She could make it! And even if she missed, Fire led the pack behind, Tyron running and Astro and Shadow floating shortly behind!

Amanda spared a triumphant look at Freak and her rocket had almost reached the docile phantom, who still sat undisturbed. Judging by the path it was on a direct course for his head. Her heart soared and momentarily pushed the mourning of Helix from her mind. It was going to hit him! She was going to strike Freak right in his stupid face-

Crack! The phantom's neck crunched horribly to the side. The rocket shot wide. The phantom's yellow eyes and glowing smile were trained on her. A gurgling, bubbling sound came from somewhere on his back and out reached a lumpy, bulbous limb, at the end of which sat a many-fingered hand. Each finger bloomed into a talon and shot forth like a missile of stretching flesh.

Amanda rolled aside. The talon missed and stuck in the rising obsidian, but Amanda also wound up flying wide. Dodging several more talons, she kicked off from the nearest bookcase, sending her swooping back in the opposite direction. She tripped on the ground and was steadied by Astro.

Then the rest of the fingers struck out. Fire stopped as a wide fan of talons embedded themselves in the floor like the bars of a cell, separating the group from the activation mechanism. Then, suddenly, they began to shift. The fleshy limb sticking out of Freak's back heaved, and in a moment, Freak swung before them, a crackling ragdoll suspended in the air by a thick, grotesque string.

"Hello, Fire," Freak said. "I didn't expect you to come back so soon… or in such good company?"

His yellow eyes rolled out and took in the others. A serpentine tongue began to run over his dry, splintering lips.

"What brings you all here?"

Fire replied: "We're here to stop you, as cliché as that sounds. The plan is the same as when the Entity was in charge. You made things easier for us so far, but it looks like that just changed."

Freak smiled.

"Oh, I certainly did, Fire, sending Glibby, Forgelight and all of them spinning was a joy. But, of course, it wasn't only pleasure hahaha-"

Tyron growled and cut the phantom off.

"We know! We've known since we first learned what happened. You feed on fear so keeping them all confused makes you stronger! Get out of our way or get another bit!"

"Leave!" snarled Kir, its blue glow intensifying.

The phantom's smile vanished, the cracked lips becoming a fractured line.

"At least you're all smarter than Destiny."

Anger surged within the group.

"Kill. Now," ordered Kir. Tyron did not countermand him.

Rose whipped her arm out and sent a wave of daggers flying at the phantom, each of which was struck through by an unbreakable talon, forcing the assassin to dodge and roll every which way as they shattered the ground beneath her. Kay attempted to win her more room by trying to cut through one of the fingers the talons were attached to, only for his sword to bounce off. Beneath the withered flesh, the talon ran through it like a bone.

Shadow let loose one of her disintegration beams and Freak responded by shooting out one of his ever-stretching arms. For every molecule of flesh Shadow burned, a new one appeared behind it, pushing it forward. The beam stopped, and Freak shed the melted arm. It slopped onto the floor like a dead snake.

He swung left to dodge a rocket from Amanda, swiped up to shatter a shield Astro had thrown edgeways like a shuriken. Then, his eyes widened as he saw Jennifer release the string on the ghastbone bow. His body swung up and around, but his face stayed upright, his neck crunching all the way. The arrow shattered against the barrier of talons.

Now, Fire leapt up at him, zweihander held back in anticipation of a mighty blow. Flame bunched up on the tip of the blade. Freak braced and parried the attack, sending Fire back down to earth with a quick swipe of his claws. Further talons shot out to prevent Amanda from flying past him, forcing her into desperate circles in the air.

Steve threw his ender-pearl above the phantom's head but found it shattered in the air by Freak's outstretched arm. He began to fall, and the phantom swung down at him. He only just raised his shield in time for it to ever-improbably absorb the blow. Tyron moved to his rescue on stone wings, drawing an attack from Freak away from the adventurer, then striking out at the phantom's face with Kir.

Cursing, Freak turned momentarily intangible, becoming visible only to the weakest person he could identify in the room: Kay. A shudder ran over the General, and he realised what had happened. He reached for one of the stones the phantom had dug up and, just as he became generally visible again, threw it.

The rock struck Freak right between the eyes. He flinched. He reached up and fell the warmth of blood dribbling down his forehead. He began to cackle.

"Really? All that, and the guy who draws first blood is the con artist with the dodgy leg? This is just getting silly now."

Kay reflexively readjusted his leg to try and mask its weakness, knowing in his heart it would do no good. He clasped his sword with both hands and tried to recapture his old, heroic grandeur.

"You're welcome to quit any time, Freak!" Astro spat.

He reached out and with a clenching of his fist broke the bones in the formless limb on Freak's back. The talons stopped chasing Amanda and she started to hurriedly correct her course. Fire struck out again and Freak dodged instead of parrying.

The phantom's smile cooled. His eyes flashed yellow. The molten rays above seemed to dim.

"I'm good, actually, but you all look awfully tired. Why don't you all lie down?"

Suddenly the remaining torches roared with yellow flame, and the Throne Room collapsed into darkness. A great tiredness began to sap away their will. Steve struggled under the weight of his shield and armour, remembering Destiny's sedative and thinking how gentle that weariness seemed compared to the dive into oblivion he was now stuck in. Fire fell to his knees, fighting to get back up. Amanda dropped from the sky and only Shadow remained lucid enough to slow her descent with a spell.

"I am the Phantom Lord, welcome to my domain: Your worst nightmares!"