Episode 2, Chapter 3: Rising

The interior of the tower was far bigger than the outside had led the group to believe - even the entryway seemed massive, compared to the seven figures grouped in the middle. A'zlia had followed them in, predictably, and was sat on the large chandelier over their heads.

"Worry not, not one thought. It all starts easy, but the stakes may make you queasy!" She chirped. "Losers don't thrive, they don't survive! But the Light is nice, death comes twice!"

"Twice?" Lukas asked. "What's that mean?"

"Get beat down, go back to town! Easy as pie, until you die!" She giggled. "The Light doesn't kill, not for the cheap thrill!"

Jack immediately stood up. "Then what was-?"

"The Sea Temple? To make you tremble! He doesn't bring harm, it's part of the charm!"

"The charm? THE CHARM? Glad to know him killing my husband is 'part of the charm' of this damned quest!" He growled, drawing his sword. "Why don't you come down here and I show you some 'charm' of my own, huh!?"

"Show some class, don't be an ass." She waved her arm, Jack shuddering as he jerkily put the sword away. "I'm not the Light, I cannot fight. His battles aren't mine, fight him on your own time."

Jess looked up at Jack, then at A'zlia. "What was that?"

"You were both Bearers, and those can be terrors, so I have the power, to force you to cower." Her teeth glittered in the candlelight, hands resting on a lit candle - yet no pain was visible on her face. "Best to hurry; before you really need to worry!."

She giggled, vanishing again. Jack knelt, grumbling to himself as the others looked at each other.

"Climbing the tower doesn't seem that hard, at least?" Radar reasoned, looking around. "Seems like it's a… standard mob gauntlet, I guess. Go up a floor, kill all the mobs, rinse and repeat until we get to the Clock."

"That sounds almost… too easy though." Petra looked over at him. "If I were a world-altering entity, I'd make something way harder. Mobs and puzzles."

Jess shook, putting a hand on their head.

"Jess…? You good?" Petra asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. When they put their hand down, their pupil in that eye was seemingly entirely gone - only the white of their eye remained. "Your eye!" Petra called out, prompting everyone to look.

"I mean, I'd noticed it'd looked different, but that's… that can't be normal." Olivia mumbled, looking at Lukas - who nodded in agreement. The others all turned, looking at Jess then at each other.

"Welcome to my Tower." Jess took a bow, smiling politely. "A'zlia told you the rules, yes?"

"If we fail a challenge, we get sent back to town, yeah?" Petra asked. "Hell, isn't this basically your house, Mx. Gauntlet? Tell us who you are."

"You think the gauntlet is sentient?" Jess laughed. "The gauntlet is merely my communicator, an input for my power and influence over an entity. I'm just… a simple sort, the one who created your world, the one who stoked the initial fires of human life... Surely you hadn't forgotten the stories of the Admin that the Temple had told?"

"Father to man and mob alike." Sammy said, kneeling down. "The Infinite Light."

"Ah… it's been so long since I heard myself called that." Jess sighed wistfully, voice trailing off as their eyes drifted over as Jack pulled himself to his feet. The lighting combined with the angle of his head made it look like he had no eyes, his fists balled so hard his knuckles were turning white.

"You." Jack tilted his head up slightly, locking eyes with Jess. "You really wanna use Jess as a shield? What, scared we'll be too strong for you? Too afraid to try and take us all on?"

"Such 'powerful' words." Jess smirked, hand reaching out. Their fingers curled into Jack's thick, wavy hair, lifting him up. "You know if I showed up in my true form here, you'd all just end up like your friends."

Jack thrashed, yelling. "Don't patronize me! You're the one that wanted to show your face to me of ALL PEOPLE!"

"Look at Sammy." They said, dropping Jack. "You know I haven't killed anybody, right."

"Haven't killed anybody? Haven't killed anybody?

"I said what I said." Jess shrugged. "I don't need you to believe me."

"What about Vos?! ...What about Nurm!?" Jack yelled, drawing his sword. Jess waved their arm, Sammy flinging herself between Jess and Jack.

"I'd think carefully about your next move, Jack." Jess said slowly. "One false move, and I can fling your friend over your blade. You wouldn't want to be responsible for its death, would you?"

Jack faltered for a moment, before putting his sword away. Sammy stepped aside as Jack shoved Jess, knocking them onto their back. Jess shook their head, looking around in confusion as Jack suddenly stopped.

"Jack?" Jess asked, quietly. "What happened? What did I do?"

"...Nothing. Let's just start climbing this thing." Jack waved his hand, making his way to the stairs. The others followed close behind, all of them making their way up… finally.

The second floor was oddly quiet, the group on high alert as they looked around. Eyes peered at them from the walls - purple eyes, with a faint glow to them; their bodies blending into the walls.

"Eyes to the floor." Lukas said softly. "Those look like Enderman eyes."

"Invisible Endermen? Now I've seen everything…" Olivia muttered, looking down with everyone else as they crept across the way. "W-Wait…"

"There's no stairs." Radar squeaked, looking at the walls. The eyes followed him, ominously narrowing as they heard the clicking of spider legs on the ground. "A-And… there's spiders?"

"Worse than just spiders- Everyone scatter!" Petra yelled, the group running in different directions as the walls sprang to life, revealing void black creatures. Their top halves were endermen - the lanky arms and purple eyes proved that easy enough. Their bottom halves, where their legs would be, were long, terrifying spider legs, clicking against the floor as they skittered around, moving faster than normal spiders as purple wisps trailed behind them.

"En… end- spid..-Spinders?" Jess mumbled, raising their sword as they came closer, circling the group. Petra stood, back to back with Jess, looking over her shoulder and nodding.

"Everyone else duck. Jess, when I say the word, spin."

"S-Spin!?" Jess asked as everyone hit the deck, crawling out of the circle of Spinders. "I.. okay…"

The two braced themselves, locking their free arms together at the elbow and nodding at each other, holding their swords out.

"SPIN MOVE!" they yelled in unison, running in a circle around each other. "WARRIORRRRR… WHIRLWIIIIIINDD!" The two yelled, slashing through the spinders so quickly that only string and ender pearls littered the floor.

"..String and ender pearls, huh?" Petra asked, kneeling down as she caught her breath, picking up some of the loot. "Odd that the Admin would keep their combined loot together."

"What's next? Zombies that drop feathers?" Jess joked, looking up. The ceiling had a hole in the middle, revealing the floor above. They looked at the ender pearls and string, then over at the group. "Hang on… Pets. Throw a pearl through that hole."

"Up there?" She raised an eyebrow, looking at Jess as she threw the pearl through the hole, teleporting away as it donked on the other side. She poked an arm through the hole, giving a thumbs-up before pulling her arm back up, looking around as the others threw pearls up to join her.