Disclaimer: I'm not creative enough to own Minecraft

Chapter 19: an ancient ritual

I woke up to the sound of fighting on the roof. I quickly went up to see the others fighting off wave after wave of spiders. In the middle of the roof, Shara seemed to be working on an enchantment table.

"Is it almost Midnight?" I heard Maillie ask.

"We've got 5 more minutes" Elda called from the other side. I remember putting up overhangs to prevent this very scenario, but they must have taken them down. Luckily, nothing was spawning on the roof itself.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The ritual requires a few conditions to be met" Shara said "so we're trying to complete them"

"But what happened to the overhang?" I asked

"She took it off…for the sacrifice" Maillie called, seeming out of breath.

"Sacrifice?" I asked.

"Yea" Shara said "you need an enchantment table, a circle of Redstone, total darkness, and exposure to moonlight. Once it becomes midnight, the only thing left is to perform the sacrifice…but we'll need to stand back"

"Why? What happens after?" I asked.

"You'll see" she said.

"Ok…" I said hesitantly.

Shara took out a small, square red object, which immediately started glowing "let one in!" she said, putting the object on the enchanting table.

One of the girls moved aside, and a spider ran past, surprisingly not attacking anyone near the edge. After looking around a moment, it attacked Shara, who was ready. The moment the spider fell, lightning struck the alter, causing several things to happen.

Somehow, the lightning was powerful enough to surge through the ground, pushing all the spiders back, and the overhang was rebuilt right after. At the same time, Shara was sent flying into me, passed out from the impact. And lastly, all the grass within 3 feet (1 foot=1 block) of the enchantment table was turned purple.

"Shara!" I said in surprise as I caught her.

"Let's get inside and wait for this cursed ground to clear" Maillie said. We headed inside and sealed the roof as we started hearing zombie noises.

"Ok, unstable ingots" Aqua said.

"I know how to get them" Maillie said "just lay Shara in her bed"

I did as Maillie asked, and when I went back, I saw Maillie at the crafting table "ok, we don't have many diamonds, so we have to move quickly" she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"as I said earlier, there are two ways of making unstable ingots" she said "one way is through dividing an iron ingot by diamond, which makes the ingot unstable. These will explode after 10 seconds, if dropped, or if put in the pouch."

"The second way?" I asked.

"Dividing a golden nugget by diamond makes a semi-stable nugget, which is small enough to contain the energy" she said "nine of those makes a stable unstable ingot"

"But regardless of what's being divided, each costs a diamond?" I asked

"You got it" she replied "I can move quickly, just hand me the diamonds and ingots"

After a few hours, she had it perfected. She put the portal outside, next to the Nether portal. The portal was pitched black, with swirls on each side.

Katie, Evan, and Aqua were all asleep, while Elda and Blaze looked ready to explore. "We decided to make a path down" Blaze said.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"Read the book while they're gone" Shara said as the two princesses disappeared in the portal.

I looked at the book, and turned to the Deep Dark section. Aqua woke up and listened as I read it out loud.

"The Deep Dark" I read "it is a special case in its location. If you think of the void as a sort of sphere, then most dimensions are within a single shell. However, the Deep Dark is in the most dangerous shell: the center. The Deep Dark is in the deepest part of the void, with very little void beneath it. It is composed of five layers: ceiling, stone, cave, tunnels, void. The ceiling is composed of a thin layer of impenetrable bedrock, the stone layer is composed of close to a hundred miles of pure stone, and is where the exit portal will appear with its small room, the cave is literally miles of empty space, with some structures inside, the tunnels is a large tunnel system under the cave, and has tons of ore, and the void is below the tunnels, with no bedrock in-between."

"Keep going" Aqua said, obviously intrigued.

"While ore is nearly doubled" I continued "the danger is too. Mobs spawn everywhere, even in light, and they have tons of strength. Besides that, there is a mob that is untouchable: shadow. The darkness literally consumes any unlucky enough to leave the light, and shadows are how it does that. The shadows cannot be hit, and will gang up until you're dead, or until you return to the light. The exception is the princess, who can be in light, though is weaker in it"

"The princess?" Maillie asked "I've never heard of her"

"Read her part" Shara said, seeming not to know either.

I flipped through the pages, and found the shadow princess page. "The shadow princess is a VERY special case" I read "when a burst of energy was forced deep into the void, the Deep Dark became super charged. While the energy was driven into its center, some stayed, and a shadow got the full blast. This shadow became smarter, more powerful, and gained substance, allowing her to not only be in light, but take a humanoid form"

"Why do I have a feeling we'll see her?" Aqua asked.

"Because we probably will" I said "but that's in the morning, we should get some rest"

"I agree" Maillie said "night!"

"Night!" the rest of us said. I got into bed, my mind whirling with thoughts of the deep dark. As I drifted to sleep, I was almost certain I saw a shadow…and she was smiling with a look that worried me…

Yay! I FINALLY finished this chapter! The next chapter should be posted sooner than this one was, but there are no guaranties. Remember: I love criticism, reviews encourage me, and I'm open to input. Bye for now!