Chapter 65: Abyssal Tyranny


Endermen were everywhere. Armored, unarmored, young, old, friend, and foe, there had to be at least two hundred of them at the city's outskirts. From Matthew's perspective, aboard the ship he'd stowed away in, the ground below resembled a frothing sea of black exoskeletons as the fighting began. Other Endermen who'd been working at nearby farms were lashing out at the armored guards watching over them, bolstering the impromptu alliance's numbers and throwing the Acolytes' defenses into further disarray. It wasn't the best-planned attack (in fact, he wasn't sure if there really was a plan), but their quest to halt a second war between the End and the Overworld seemed to have reached its final stages nonetheless. There was nothing else to do but finish the fight.

Unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to get a good shot at any targets below. He stood with his crossbow loaded, hoping for an opportunity to present itself, but the sheer frenzy with which the Endermen were teleporting meant he couldn't fire an arrow for fear of harming an ally.

He and Alice weren't left alone for long, as Salsh warped up to them shortly after the battle kicked off. There was a long scratch across his chest, and his face looked like it had taken a few punches, but he was smiling wearily at them.

"I can't believe it… how did you…?"

They both turned to show him the wings they'd taken, and a look of sad understanding crossed his face when he realized how they must have gotten them. But there was no time to dwell on it, for a winged Enderman with a spiked helmet teleported onto the deck a short distance away. He glowered at the three- specifically at Matthew and Alice- before screaming something at Salsh.

"Hiscal'ogmisresim," Salsh explained. "The Fliers' chief. I… don't think he'll be talked out of fi-"

He was cut off by Hiscal launching himself with a rocket into him. They hit the deck hard enough to crack the purple bricks, nearly breaking through completely. Alice swung her mace at Hiscal while he was pinning Salsh, but he warped out of harm's way so she almost toppled over from her own momentum. Before Matthew could see where he'd gone, he stumbled as his wings were ripped off from behind. Hiscal then grabbed him by the back of his traveler's robe and lifted him a block in the air.

"Let go of him!" Alice shouted, swapping her glowing mace for one of the new diamond swords they'd crafted in the ship's storage bay.

Hiscal let out a dark laugh, then tossed Matthew over the edge. He couldn't find the breath to scream as he plummeted away from the ship and the island, and into the empty purple void below. He flailed his arms, trying to grab onto anything, but there was nothing but him and an endless fall. Desperate, he found his supply of rockets and lit one, only for it to sail uselessly away from him; without the wings, he couldn't fly back.

"MATT! MATT!"

He twisted himself to look back. Alice was falling too, or rather, she was diving after him. Her wings were folded behind her, and she had more fireworks in one hand while her other was stretched toward him. She had a firm, focused expression, but he could see tears in her eyes.

When the distance was closed, Matthew grabbed her hand and pulled her in until they were clinging to each other. Alice unfurled her wings, and they turned up from their fall into a glide. She was taking heavy breaths, but composed herself enough to say, "Give me the rockets!"

He handed her all of his remaining supply, which she used to turn them around and launch back toward the ship. They'd fallen very far, and their combined weight was drastically reducing the lift each firework gave them.

"Oh no," Alice whimpered as she lit the final one. Their ascent at that rate would stop just before they reached the ship's edge, and they wouldn't be able to grab hold of it. "No, no, no…"

"Blech!"

One of the purple blocks on the hull opened and revealed itself to be the shelled mob they had encountered before, now stuck to the side of the ship like a hitchhiker. Its eyes narrowed at the sight of them, and it spat another wad of gas right into Alice. The two began to float, still clinging together as they were carried up past the ship's edge. Grabbing onto a railing, they pulled themselves onto the deck just as the levitation wore off.

There still wasn't any time to catch their breath, however, because Salsh was being pinned to the floor once again while Hiscal pummeled him with his fists and claws. Their return to the deck had gone unnoticed, so Matthew shot at Hiscal's back while Alice ran toward them. The arrow tore through one of his wings and glanced off his exoskeleton, alerting him to their presence. He got off of Salsh and teleported again before Alice could hit him, this time reappearing right behind her. He reached out to tear off her wings, but Salsh grabbed her by the ankle and teleported both of them further away. Hiscal was left between the three of them, looking supremely irritated. He snarled something in Endish and turned to Matthew, launching toward him with another rocket.

He didn't get far. The hole in his wing killed his gliding momentum, and he crashed into the floor. Hiscal stood to continue his charge on foot, but his fall had been enough of a delay for Salsh to warp over and drive a punch into his face. He staggered, but wasn't able to reorient himself before the Cindered One and the Watchers' leader both teleported onto the deck with them. They each smashed a block of end stone against his helmet, and Hiscal swayed, then collapsed with a groan. He wasn't dead, but he would definitely be feeling the impact when he woke up.

Matthew was attacked again an instant later, though not by an enemy: Alice was almost tackling him into a hug, which he returned as the rush of the fight wore down.

"Don't scare me like that again!" she half-sobbed into his shoulder.

Tears ran down his face as well, and he held her close. "You saved me… you flew after me…"

"Of course I did…"

They shared a kiss, though it had to be kept brief as there was still work to be done. When they separated, they approached Salsh and the two Ender chiefs.

"I'm relieved you made it back, but there's no time to celebrate," Salsh said. "The battle is close, and we may even have the Acolytes outnumbered between our own forces and the rioting prisoners. Yet there is still the concern of undead soldiers. If they join the fight, we may find ourselves overwhelmed."

Alice scratched her head. "They haven't shown up yet? I thought for sure the Acolytes would let 'em out as soon as there was trouble."

"I am not certain where they are either, but Lurex'skonaslar was spotted retreating into the city. We must stop her from activating them if we are to stand any chance of winning." Salsh gestured to the two chiefs behind him. "They've requested we handle it ourselves, while they keep the Acolytes' main forces occupied out here. Dunera will meet us up ahead; she knows where Lurex went."

"Okay, we can do that," Matthew replied. He was scared, and he couldn't wait for it to be over, but he wasn't going to back down now. After so many run-ins with hostile Endermen, he was almost looking forward to facing off with zombies and skeletons again. He looked at the two chiefs and gave them a bow. "Good luck, we won't let you down."

Salsh translated for them, then Matthew and Alice held onto him as he teleported them off the ship, into the Acolytes' base of operations.


Populated regions were sparse in the End, and cities were even rarer. Salsh had heard of tribes living in tall, chorus tree-shaped towers, but he'd never seen such a place himself. A city as large as Nuroslar, therefore, was a once-in-a-lifetime sight to behold, and he didn't appreciate the scale of it at all given the circumstances. On the contrary, as they took cover in the doorway of a smaller building, listening to the distant sounds of the battle and hearing Acolyte patrols teleporting to join the fray, he couldn't wait to put the city behind him and never look back.

The deeper they went, the quieter it became. Nuroslar seemed devoid of activity, the bulk of its inhabitants fighting at the outskirts, and Salsh was only growing more anxious as they drew closer to what could only be the city's command center. Hundreds of blocks tall, sporting innumerable branching chambers that jutted out in all directions, and reinforced with obsidian pillars along its sides, it was the largest, most imposing structure he'd seen in any dimension, let alone his homeworld. Not even the black towers of the Hallowed Grounds or the woodland mansion compared to its height. Even so, there didn't seem to be any guards present, and they only other person they met on their approach was Dunera, standing a short distance from the main entrance and fidgeting nervously.

"You're okay!" she exclaimed in Overworldish, tapping her claws together in delight upon seeing Alice and Matthew. "The Cindered One told me to find where their officer was going. She went through here, but I am not sure which floor she might be headed for." Dunera paused, then looked at the ground. "If she isn't stopped, more undead will be upon us… but I can't take another step closer…"

Alice gave her a pat on the shoulder. "It's okay, we'll take it from here. You just find somewhere safe to stay, all right?"

But Dunera shook her head, clenching her fists. "I will not hide. My tribe is fighting… I will return to help them."

"You are brave, young one," Salsh told her. "Go if you must, but don't take any needless risks. The Dwellers of the Ashen Fields wouldn't do well to lose you now."

With that, they parted ways. Dunera teleported out of the area, while the three of them braced themselves for whatever they would find inside the tower. Their target could have been on any floor in any room, and time was of the essence, so they would need to search quickly. Rounding the last corner, they ran through the front door at the base.

The hunt for Lurex'skonaslar ended as quickly as it began. She was slumped against a wall on the ground floor, her yellow robe torn and stained a nauseating shade of green as blood pooled around her. Lurex's breaths were slight, and she looked like she was barely maintaining consciousness. She wasn't alone; the triplets were crouched around her, sounding distraught as they whispered to one another. When Thital glanced up and saw them, his many eyes narrowed, and he hissed. Azhero was on his feet immediately, standing in front of Lurex and glowering at the three, while Volas merely covered her face with a whimper.

Alice and Matthew had their weapons equipped, but neither of them seemed prepared to fight the triplets, and Salsh was rooted to the spot as he tried to figure out what to do. Lurex couldn't have been wounded in her escape, so what had happened to her? The injury was in the exact position where her pearl would have been, had somebody taken it?

Slowly, she looked up at them from where she sat and gave a weak, bitter laugh. "Groundskeeper… if you are here to kill me, you… are too late."

"Stay away!" Thital spat, once more in broken Overworldish. "No more step! We fight! We FIGHT!" Then, in Endish to Salsh, "Keep your dirty friends away from her, traitor!"

Lurex coughed, clutching her chest. "No… enough, Thital'wagamislar… now… now we need their help." The triplets glanced at her in surprise, but the only one she had her eyes on was Salsh. "Chief… stop… our chief. Laboratory… go… now…"

She wheezed, unable to say any more. Salsh, Thital, Alice, Volas, Matthew, and Azhero slowly looked at each other, and an atmosphere of utter dread sank over them. Whatever she was imploring them to do would mean going against her own leader, and Salsh couldn't imagine what turn of events had led to this, or what horrible plan he had in mind.

Thital stood, looking sullen. "Follow us, Groundskeeper. We can guide you to the laboratories… take your Walkers of the Blue Pain along if you have to, but we'll have our eyes on them. Phoros'malmislar is powerful… if you think you can fight him, you had better be prepared."

The triplets vanished, rapidly teleporting up the stairs from that ground floor. Salsh translated the key information for Matthew and Alice, and they shrugged before moving to follow their unusual new allies. As Salsh was walking after them, Lurex spoke again, barely above a whisper.

"...the children… please… do not hurt… the children…"

He looked upon her miserable form with a slew of conflicting thoughts. She'd been his enemy, she'd nearly gotten him and his friends killed, yet now she was pleading for his help, and for him to spare her underlings. Lurex'skonaslar, in what would surely be her final moments, cared only for the safety of the triplets.

"Salsh, let's go!" he heard Alice call.

He turned to rejoin his group, only pausing to say one last thing to her. "They will not be harmed. You have my word."

As he made his way up the stairs, he thought he heard her sigh in relief.


The path leading higher in the building was a difficult one for Alice to navigate. She found herself struggling up a long, winding spiral stairway that was clearly built with longer legs than hers in mind. Each landing was only a block wide, just enough to fit a single occupant at a time, so having Salsh or one of the triplets teleport her and Matthew further up wasn't the safest idea.

She paused to catch her breath after having to practically jump across a gap. The entire chamber was built out of the same purple bricks and stones she'd seen throughout the city, and she had no idea if they were even close to their destination. "If you guys can teleport," she asked at one point, "why bother with the stairs?"

"We are not able to teleport from birth," Salsh explained. "We create our pearls as a rite of passage into adolescence, then ingest them. They become a part of us as we age, and we gain their properties."

So they'd entered the End using what were essentially the harvested organs of dead Endermen. She squirmed at the thought, recalling how he'd gotten a pearl from the giant in the Nether and how miserable it had made him. "So you build the pearls yourselves? How do you do tha-AAAT?!"

She'd taken a step onto what she thought was an ordinary block protruding from the wall, only for half of it to split open and nearly make her lose her footing. Alice stumbled back in shock as she stared at another of the shelled mobs. It gave her a glare, and she realized if it made her float again then it would be a long, long fall back to the ground floor. But there was no need for panic: Azhero teleported down to the step right beside the mob and gave its shell a thump with his fist. It grumbled and teleported out of sight, somewhere else in the tower.

"Okay, what are these?" she sighed. "There was one on the ship, too."

Salsh hesitated in his reply. "I'm not sure there is a good translation, but we call them 'shulkers'. To create our pearls, we must each bond with one and feed it chorus fruit. Our chosen shulker then forms the pearl within its shell over time, and we collect it when it is ready." He frowned up at the rest of the stairwell, where more grumbling could be heard. "It appears the Acolytes have kept their shulkers here for security purposes."

"Protect the city," was all Thital said from further up.

The triplets eventually came to a stop at a wider landing which brought them to a narrow passageway, lined with yellow stone bricks. They went through and wound up in a very strange rectangular room: an indoor garden where birch trees from the Overworld and red fungal growths from the Nether had been planted in rows along either side of the walls. Some of them had been warped and corrupted, the birch bark turning a sickly gray and the leaves a deep purple, while the Nether plants had become blue and teal. The corrupted trees on both sides surrounded a pair of small devices, a single block in size. They featured gray, metallic lining along the edges, and their ridged surfaces were blue in color. Yellow, blinking lights were visible in the middle of each face of the blocks.

"Reactor cores," Thital said. "Make places comfortable."

"Are these the devices Dunera was talking about back in the forest?" Alice wondered, observing the corrupted birch trees. "Nether reactors, Overworld reactors… the Acolytes have been trying to make their conquered territories more habitable for themselves." The thought of the Overworld covered in such warped flora made her shiver.

The end of the chamber led to another short stairwell and hallway, and beyond that stood a sealed iron door which Alice broke apart with a pickaxe. Volas said something in a nervous voice as the triplets filed in to have a look around. The room was lined with pyramidal bedrock structures with small, black miasmas in the center, looking not unlike the portal they'd come to the End through. Two Acolyte guards were dead on the floor, sporting similar injuries to Lurex, and one of the gateways had a trail of green, bloody footprints leading to it.

"This is Lurex'skonaslar's laboratory," Salsh translated for Volas, "each of these portals leads to somewhere else in this dimension." He looked at the bodies with a sigh. "What has he come here to do…?"

The gateway they were all looking at flickered, and then another Enderman appeared in front of it. Alice's heart sank at the sight of him; he was covered in customized Netherite armor, and he was a bit taller than most others she'd seen. The green glow of his eyes seemed cruel as he sized up the six people before him. Lurex had mentioned a 'Phoros'malmislar', and Alice had a feeling this was the man himself. He focused his gaze on her and Matthew, then spoke. Salsh sounded tense as he translated, and Phoros remained where he was, as though he took pleasure in watching his message be relayed.

"'Not for the first time, a pair of interlopers come to wreak havoc upon our world. However, you are too late to stop me now. Our guest of honor should be here shortly, shall we greet her together?'"

"Who's he talking about?" Matthew asked. Alice could see him trembling as he held his crossbow up, and she couldn't deny being worried herself.

From somewhere in the distance, a deep, low sound rumbled. Phoros' face split apart in a wide, toothy smile, then he teleported out of the room. Loud footsteps paced about the roof above them.

"Stay close to me," Salsh said, and the pair grabbed onto him to warp after their foe.

The chamber was about three quarters up the tower, so when they emerged on the roof they could still see more rooms and branching tunnels overhead. Phoros had his back to them and the triplets, but he was looking to the sky with his arms outstretched. Another rumbling noise came, this time close enough to make the building's supports shudder. She looked over the roof and at the city below. In the distance, she could see the battlefield where the ships had stopped. The swarm of black figures, the Endermen who'd been fighting so fiercely before, had all gone completely still. A third sound came, deafeningly loud and even closer, and Alice realized what she was hearing.

It was a roar.

Far above the city, so high that she couldn't even properly distinguish it from the End's static void, a dark shape swept through the sky before circling around like a phantom hunting its prey. As it passed overhead again, Alice was able to make out the shapes of two giant, batlike wings and a tail as long as the rest of the creature. It roared again, and moments later a fine purple mist began to drift down upon the city. Phoros and Salsh twitched when it landed on them, the latter taking deep, gasping breaths and collapsing to his knees.

"No. Don't look. Don't look. Don't."

"Salsh?" Alice whispered.

The violet particles falling from the sky condensed around him and Phoros, seeping into the gaps of their exoskeletons like potion fumes. He stood again with a stagger, then craned to look to the sky and let out the loudest, most agonized howl she'd ever heard.

"DON'T! LOOK! AT! ME!"

Then he slumped, going limp where he stood like a puppet dangled by a string. He and Phoros disappeared on the spot, but in the split second before they teleported, Alice could see the verdant green glow of their eyes had been replaced by a bright violet in the corner of her vision. Below, the rest of the city had gone empty, as the rest of those present teleported away as well. When the last of the possessed Endermen had disappeared, the enormous shape in the sky flew off into the distance.

Alice's mace clattered to the roof, and she fell onto all fours. "They… they brought it back…"

She didn't know how or why, but the Acolytes of the Violet Gaze- or at least their leader- had resurrected the greatest threat in the history of the End, the Nether, and the Overworld alike. She'd heard the stories growing up, passed down through generations, and now she'd gained perspective on the foul creature from her oppressed subjects, but she never could have imagined (or hoped) to see her in person.

The Ender Dragon had returned, and the Endermen were once again under her control.

"Get up! Get up, now!"

She looked back, surprised to see the triplets were still there. The three of them were clearly scared beyond all reason, but they didn't seem to have been affected, perhaps due to being so different from the rest. Thital was stomping a foot on the roof. "Up! Up! Need help, save tribe!"

Matthew grit his teeth. "Save your… they did this! Your boss is the one who made this happen!"

Thital's many eyes widened, but then he and the others sank to one knee before them. "Please? Friends… friends in trouble… never wanted this…"

Alice got to her feet and retrieved her fallen mace. Her and Matthew's eyes met, and they nodded in understanding. Whatever was to be done about the Acolytes, it could wait. For now, they would have to put aside their differences to defeat a much greater threat to them all.

"Okay. Our friends are in trouble too, and we can't just leave them. But how do we catch up to the Ender Dragon? Can you teleport us after her?"

Thital paced around the roof, but his eyes were all facing the direction she'd flown off in. He paused mid-step when Volas hopped up and down, pointing off toward the site of the battle and gibbering excitedly. Everyone followed her gaze to the fleet of ships the flying Endermen had used.


He was a Keeper of the Hallowed Grounds. He fled from home. He was chased. He lost a part of himself. He stood no chance at defeating his enemies alone, but he had to try. He remembered that.

He met somebody. Two people offered to help him. They trusted him. He trusted them. He remembered that.

He was home again. Surrounded by old acquaintances. His brood, his family. He was with them at last. They were not happy. He was not happy. He had left to find a way to keep them safe. He remembered that.

They were surprised to see him. They were surprised to see her. Everything was okay, she convinced them easily. There was nothing to fear but the outsiders. He remembered that.

Something was wrong. She could not speak to them, but she was looking for something. She didn't find it. She didn't find herself. He knew it, he knew what she was telling them. She could not speak to them. He remembered that.

His head hurt. His missing arm hurt. His soul hurt. His soul had always hurt. It was his fault. Keepers of the Hallowed Grounds. It was their fault. He remembered…

She was not alive. She hadn't been brought back correctly. Too weak, too clumsy. But she was in command. She had always been in command. He remembered…

He remembered…

He trusted them… who did he trust? Not them. Not himself. Not his family. Nobody else. Only her. He only trusted her, always.

He remembered that.


"Roaaar! I'm the Ender Dragon! Fear me!"

"Adam, you can't be the Dragon EVERY time."

"Why not? Blake always gets to be Steve!"

"I don't wanna be Steve today, but Mark never plays anyone else!"

"You'd all just play Grimstone Reaper wrong."

"Grimstone Reaper's not a real person, you can't just make up a third Legendary Hero!"

"What if we were all different people this time? You know, like WE were the Legendary Heroes instead?"

"But then who would be the Ender Dragon?"

"Hm, Lauren's right. There'd still just be four of us."

"We could have a different villain too! Like, um… I'd be the Phantom Lady of the Full Moon, Lunar Witch Alice!"

"Ooh, I like that. Then the rest of us could be… Order of Obsidian!"

"Can I still be Grimstone Reaper?"


The small ship cruised silently through the void, in pursuit of the runaway tyrant and her possessed army.

Alice looked over the railing into the endless expanse of nothingness and reflected on her youth. She and the old gang had played so many games, pretending to be intrepid adventurers and explorers who changed the world. As she'd grown older, her interests shifted from imagining history to studying it, and when she and Matthew met Salsh, she was presented with the chance to make it. Even so, at no point would she ever have thought she'd be facing down a foe quite like this. Matthew joined her at the railing, resting a hand on hers, and she leaned against him.

"Matt," she eventually said, "I think this could be it. We're in for the hardest fight of our lives, and I don't know what'll happen. So… thanks for being my friend. Thanks for being the careful one when I get too ambitious."

"Thank you for helping me work up the nerve to step out of the village more," he replied. "I wish I could be more comfortable taking risks, like you are."

She smiled. "I'm sure we can still learn a lot from each other… but we are a pretty good team, aren't we?"

He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Definitely."

"Here we are!" Thital declared, teleporting down from the crow's nest of the ship. Their destination was coming into view, a long, circular island of yellow rocks, dotted with small End brick houses along the periphery. Ten gigantic towers of obsidian rose above the buildings, with glimmering sources of purple light atop each of them.

Down below, hundreds upon hundreds of Endermen shuffled about, seemingly without motivation or purpose. Salsh had warned them not to look directly at him- the old stories had also said those who met an Enderman's gaze would also meet their wrath- but with such a large crowd, Alice wasn't sure how they were going to avoid eye contact entirely.

Volas, at the helm, worked with a few levers and buttons to slowly bring the ship to a stop. It still nearly crashed into the closest obsidian tower, but they'd at least arrived in one piece. Alice and Matthew held on to Azhero, who teleported them down to the center of the island. Thital and Volas joined them, leaving the ship behind.

The five of them wound up beside an odd structure made of bedrock, resembling a fountain with a small tower in the middle. It was empty and didn't seem to have any use, but Alice couldn't help but wonder about its purpose.

All around the group, hypnotized Endermen were ambling back and forth, groaning to themselves. Salsh and Dunera were likely somewhere within the crowd, but Alice couldn't risk searching for them.

"No looking," warned Thital, repeating it in Endish to his companions. "They get mad."

Matthew had his crossbow primed and ready. "Okay… so, where's-"

He was cut off by the sound of their ship bursting apart. They all looked up to see its smashed blocks disintegrate into nothingness, corroded by a thick, toxic-looking purple gas. The source of it made herself known quickly: mighty and terrifying, the enormous form of the Ender Dragon landed on the ground before them.

She was even bigger than the stories claimed, half a chunk tall and at least a full chunk from head to tail, with a matching wingspan. Her teeth and claws looked capable of rending flesh apart with ease, assuming she couldn't simply crush her prey through sheer size and mass. Alice realized in an instant where the Violet Gaze had gotten their name from: her eye was a brilliant shade of purple, glowing fiercely as she stared them down.

Her singular eye.

Whatever had been done to revive her, it hadn't fully worked, because the Ender Dragon was a zombified mess of rotting flesh and chipped black scales. Multiple parts of her body hadn't regrown at all, leaving her skeleton exposed to the outside. Half of her skull was exposed, including an empty, dark eye socket which was somehow more unsettling than her live eye's piercing gaze. Her underside looked like it had been ripped open to reveal her rib cage, from which glowed another purple light. Even her wings were in tatters, and the flight to that island had clearly done further damage. The undead Ender Dragon stomped a foot to shoot a tremor through the ground, then gave a low, strangled-sounding growl and bared her fangs.

Alice gripped her mace and prepared herself. It was up to them to free the End.


"We found a way to activate the portal at last, and into the End we went. It is a dark and cold place, a floating island with no sky above and no ground below. If there is more to that dimension, I have never seen it, because Steve and I visited for one reason only. We came face-to-face with the true leader of the invasion, the Ender Dragon. You've heard the stories, but what they obviously fail to mention is how many attempts it took us to win."