The Battle Of The Core (Part One)

Toni

Jax was cool and all, but as I cautiously made my way down that pit, I counted at least six safer ways we could have made our way down this pit.

The 'stairs', for lack of a better word, were comprised of big flattened obsidian blades sticking out of the walls like a spiral staircase. They weren't connected, and the height difference between them was pretty scary, like I would slip every time I took a step down.

"We're almost there," Jax encouraged us. "I can see the bottom."

"Shut up," Cal said.

"No, I'm serious this time! Look down!"

"I'd rather not," I groaned. "And can I keep my focus on the treacherous staircase? I'd rather not talk right now."

We were silent until Jax, who was in front, stopped.

"Why'd you stop?" I moaned.

"There's a drop," Jax said. "Luckily, it doesn't seem like a far drop."

I reluctantly glanced down. Several meters below us, I saw a pool of water dimly lit by some sort of moss. The black surface was as smooth as glass, and I couldn't tell how deep it was—it was too dark.

"What do you mean, it doesn't seem like a far drop?" I said incredulously.

"Hold on." Jax said. "I'll jump down first." Jax took a deep breath and jumped down. A moment later I heard a splash, and a high pitched yelp from Jax.

"Jax, you okay?" I shouted down.

"Yeah, I'm f-fine. My k-k-knees aren't," Jax groaned. "This water is…a l-lot shallower than I anticipated. And…it's c-c-cold. Like…really cold."

Cal and I exchanged glances.

"You're in front," Cal said.

I sighed and turned to the water.

"Be c-careful," Jax advised. "The w-water's only waist d-deep."

I took a deep breath and jumped down, bracing myself for impact.

The first thing I felt upon hitting the water was the cold. The cruel, unrelenting cold. The second thing I felt was pain, as my feet had smashed into the hard rock underneath the water, sending spikes of pain up my legs.

"Ow!" I yelped. "M-m-my leg-g-gs…oh, it is c-c-cold."

"Heads up!" Cal yelled, and I looked up just in time to see her fall right towards me, landing right on my chest. I smashed back into the water, and let out a high pitched, throaty scream as Cal scrambled to her feet, kicking me several times in the process.

"Ow, ow, ow!" I yelled. "W-w-watch it!"

"S-s-sorry!" Cal shivered.

We all scrambled towards the rocky shore, practically dragging ourselves out of the water and collapsing onto the ground.

We just laid there and shivered for a moment before Cal said shakily, "W-w-well that w-wasn't so b-b-bad, was it?"

"That's because you LANDED on me!" I cried in indignation.

Jax groaned and sat up. "T-That sucked."

"You t-t-think?" Cal said sarcastically. "N-n-now what? It's c-cold in this c-cave, you know."

Jax looked around for a few moments until Cal burst out, "W-w-what the hell are you d-d-doing, just w-waiting around?"

"Hold…on," Jax said, and I could tell he was trying hard not to shiver. "Aha," he said triumphantly. "How unsubtle."

"What are you t-talking about?" I shivered.

Jax pointed, and me and Cal turned to see what Jax was pointing at.

It took me a while to see it, but eventually I spotted it—a small stone bump on the side of a stalagmite that looked suspiciously like a button. It was almost impossible to see in the near darkness, and even in the light my eyes would have skipped over it several times.

"Looks l-l-like all t-those Find The B-Button games p-p-paid off," Jax grinned shakily as he walked over to it and pressed the button. To Jax's left, a stone wall slid open, revealing a set of iron doors. Me and Cal stood, and we walked towards the doors. I was about to enter, but hesitated slightly. The dread in the pit of my stomach almost engulfed me.

"L-let's go," Jax sighed. "We're n-near the end."

I sighed, resigned to my fate, and touched the doors, which automatically slid open. The walls in the elevator were completely made of glass, although it was so dark in that elevator I didn't see what the point of the glass was.

We all got in the elevator, which was pretty large for just three people. The doors slid shut, and we were thrown into almost complete darkness.

"W-well, n-now what?" Cal said.

I spotted something next to the doors and walked up to it. It was a keypad with only two buttons shaped like arrows. One went up, and the other went down.

I hit the one that went down. Suddenly the elevator jolted, and a loud whirring sound filled the elevator. We seemed to be going down, though I wasn't sure because it was so dark.

"This is inconvenient," Cal complained. "Why wouldn't they install lights in their stupid elevator?"

And at that moment, the entire elevator was suddenly flooded with orange light, making me blink from the sudden brightness.

The light hadn't come from any artificial lights—it was the lava that fell around the elevator.

"Wow," Cal gasped. "We…we really are going to the center of the world."

I looked through the glass walls of the elevator. Beyond the lava falling from the cavern ceiling, I could see an enormous cavern that was filled with even more enormous lava pools. It was almost like an entire volcanic system down here, streams of lava running everywhere. It was actually pretty impressive.

What wasn't as nice, though, was the heat. It was nice at first, considering we'd just been dumped into a pool of water that was freezing cold. But after a few minutes, it went past being just soothing and got way too hot for my liking. It was starting to get hot—really hot. Like, the hottest day of summer in a desert kind of hot.

Wow. My descriptive abilities are really failing me this chapter. First the cold, and now this.

Anyways, it was hot enough when the lava only partially covered our elevator. After a few seconds, the entire elevator was completely submerged in lava, and the heat became unbearably hot.

"It's like the Nether all over again," Cal panted.

I'd only felt this heat once before—when my village had burned. I shivered at the memory, even though it was piping hot in that elevator. Sweat ran down my brow, and I groaned, trying to fan myself in vain. "Uuuggghhh. This sucks."

"Yeah," Jax groaned. "Once I get back to Valaither I'm taking a dip in the pool."

"There's a pool in Valaither?" I said in disbelief.

"Yeah. It's got a Skywars arena and an enormous dining hall. Why wouldn't it have a pool?"

"This Valaither place…except for the whole Skywars thing, sound really nice right now." Cal sighed.

"Yeah, I'm sweating buckets." I moaned. "Wait. If we're going down to the center of the world…won't we just roast instantly?"

Jax and Cal exchanged glances, looking worried.

"Is that true?" Cal asked Jax.

"Well," Jax said uncomfortably, "not if we have the right equipment."

"And do we have the right equipment?" Cal raised an eyebrow.

"Well, technically fire resistance potions should help." Jax said. "But the center of the Earth isn't exactly a popular tourist destination, so it's mostly hypothetical."

"Great," Cal grumbled. "We finally find the center of the world and we might get roasted alive before we even reach our destination."

Jax pulled out a pink shulker box and pulled out three orange potions. "Luckily, I've got just enough for the three of us."

Jax handed out the potions, and I raised the potion. "To kicking Klith's rear."

Cal and Jax blinked, but raised their potions, repeating "To kicking Klith's rear." And with that we all downed our potions.

"Good," I said. "Now hopefully we don't melt before we meet Klith."

"I'd prefer it if we didn't meet Klith in the first place," Cal muttered.

"I agree, but it's an inevitability." Jax set down the empty bottle. "We need to be prepared for everything."

"Which we really aren't," Cal said.

"Now who's thinking too deep into it?" Jax teased.

Cal sighed. "I know I'm the one that gave that advice, but now I'm having a really hard time following it."

"What's the plan, then?" I asked.

Cal frowned. "Well, ideally our plan should be to stab Klith until he stops breathing."

"Morbid, but true. But how are we going to do that?" I asked Cal.

"I suggest we go in quietly," Jax said. "Running in will probably just kill us. After all, Klith is pretty powerful."

"Well, we've got a long time to think about it." I said. The Earth is pretty big, and traveling to the center of the world will take a while. Hopefully we come up with something good until then.

?-?-?

We didn't come up with anything good.

We all spouted several ideas, each one more implausible and desperate than the last. Eventually, things just got quiet. I think the dread that had engulfed me had infected the others too—now we stayed silent, saying nothing and just staring at each other, begging someone to speak.

And then, a polite but deep voice filled the elevator, making all of us jump. You are about to reach your destination. Please get ready to leave the elevator.

"Already?" Cal jumped to her feet. "It's only been like thirty minutes!"

Jax paled. "It it that time already?"

"We're screwed," I moaned. "We're totally—"

Jax shoved another potion into my hands. "Drink it!" Jax urged.

"Why, what is it?" I asked.

"It's an invisibility potion. We can't just show up in the elevator, they'll kill us on the spot!" Jax yelled.

I quickly drank the potion and watched as my body faded. Cal and Jax also drank, and they disappeared from sight.

"Pick up the bottles," Jax said, panicked. "And the shulker boxes."

We picked all of them up hastily as the polite voice said again: You have reached your destination.

The doors slid open, and through the doors we saw an enormous cavern with an even more enormous box made out of some shiny black metal.

"Is…is that it?" I whispered.

"The Hellstorm," Jax said grimly.

I looked around before spotting an obsidian cell that was half hidden by a large stalagmite. "Look!" I hissed. "The cell!"

"Alright," Jax said. "I'll go take a look at the Hellstorm. You guys free the others."

Jax ran off—or at least, I think he did. He was invisible, so I didn't know. I grabbed Cal's hand. "Don't let go," I said.

"Why? You scared?" Cal teased.

"Well, that's true, but it's also so we don't lose each other." I said. "Quick, let's get over there now."

Jax

I ran towards the Hellstorm, trying to make my footsteps light, but it wasn't easy considering the abuse my body had gone through the last couple of days. My body felt weak and battered, but I needed to push myself in order to stop Klith. After all, the fate of the world literally laid in my hands.

"Maybe don't think too deep into it? That's what I do before taking huge tests. I don't think about it too much. If I do, I just get more stressed."

I stopped for a moment. Cal's advice was solid—if I was stressing out the whole time, I wouldn't be able to devote my full brainpower to the problem, which was the enormous bomb in front of me.

I tried to calm myself, but it didn't really work, half formed worries and concerns running through my mind.

If only I could do some meditation, I thought dryly.

I sneaked over to the Hellstorm and glanced through the glass panel. Through the glass panel I could see the chemicals and the liquids sloshing inside. I could barely feel heat coming from the Hellstorm.

This is my chance, I thought. The Hellstorm hasn't even began to charge yet—if I blow it up now, then it won't cause any damage at all. I grabbed the sword on my back.

The reason the Hellstorm needed time to charge was because of the chemical reactions that needed to occur in the bulbs one at a time. If the chemicals combined all at once, the explosion would still occur, but it wouldn't be as powerful or intense.

I had to do it now. Right now. Or else…or else…

…

The Hellstorm was big. A lot bigger than I had anticipated. If it blew up right now, even at one percent, it would have five times the blast radius of a regular TNT block. And this cavern wasn't that big…

If I blew the Hellstorm up right now…sure, it would save the world. But…it would also result in the death of everyone in this cave. The explosion would break apart the entire cace, and magma would come crashing down on all of us. And it wouldn't even be instant.

And besides, Klith would still be alive…

But even if Klith had come through one of those nether portals right now…would I be able to do it? Foil Klith's plans and maybe even kill him…but at the cost of causing my friends a slow and painful death? It would be even slower for me, Cal, and Toni, because we'd taken fire resistance potions…

I sighed and let go of my sword. I'd have to find another way. Toni and the others didn't deserve that.

"Oof!"

There was a grunt as a pigman bumped into me from behind, pushing me forwards into another pigman carrying a large chest full of cobblestone and deepslate. The chest tilted over an spilled rocks all over the floor.

"There's an invisible person here!" A pigman screeched. "Someone's invisible!"

I saw out of the corner of my eyes pigmen pull out bottles with a milky white substance in them.

I was hit in the face with a bottle of milk, and I spluttered. Instantly I became visible.

A ring of pigmen surrounded me, and I heard a deep laugh from behind me. I turned, and saw Bolo, laughing.

"Well, well, well." Bolo sneered. "Look's like we've got an intruder."

So much for going in quietly.

Toni

We cautiously moved our way through the center of the cavern. It would have been a lot safer to go around the edges of the cavern, but we didn't have the time to waste. We nearly bumped into some pigmen several times, but luckily made it to the obsidian cell with no major incidents.

Now that we were close to the cell, I could see several people inside the cell. Dan laid against the wall, his arms crossed. Sam sat crosslegged, restlessly tapping her fingers on her thigh. Ender slowly fanned herself, glaring up at the obsidian ceiling. At the back of the cell, Ben, Seu, Nikai, and Trevor laid there, all of them dirtied and bruised.

"Ha," I said. "You guys look like crap."

"Very funny, Nikai." Seu grumbled.

"What?" Nikai responded. "I didn't say anything."

"Guys," Cal hissed. "It's me. And Toni."

Dan straightened and looked around the cell frantically. "What? Here?"

"Shh," I urged. "Don't make it obvious."

"Who…who said that?" Sam said wearily.

"It's Toni and Cal," Dan said quietly. "But be quiet about it."

"Toni and—?" Sam glanced around for a moment before grinning slightly. "Finally, some good news. Where's Jax?"

"I think he's investigating the Hellstorm," I whispered. "You know, the Hellstorm doesn't look the way I thought it would. It kinda looks like…" I looked back at the enormous rectangular bomb. "…a gaming PC."

"The hell is a gaming PC?"

"Huh. I don't know. Where did that come from?"

"Let's not talk about this now," Ender rolled her eyes. "Get us out of here. It's really god damn hot in here and Durham smells like a barrel of dead fish."

"Okay," Cal said. "Toni, you got any ideas?"

"What? Why are you going to me for help?"

"Well, you've got superpowers." Cal reasoned. "And a diamond sword."

"A glowing diamond sword! They're just going to see it!" I argued. "What do you expect me to do with this, anyway? Saw at the bars?"

"I don't know, figure something out!"

"You're the older one!"

"How's that relevant?"

"You should be more mature!"

"Bold of you to assume I matured at all from the age of 12!"

"Our knights in shining armor," Nikai deadpanned.

"Shut up, Nikai!" Both of us snapped.

A pigman walking by stopped and looked questioningly at the obsidian cell.

"Move on," Ender snapped. "Can't you see me and Nikai are having an argument?"

The pigman grunted and walked away.

"Are you trying to give yourselves away?" Ender hissed.

"Sorry," we mumbled.

"Search in some of those chests nearby," Sam said quietly. "I think that's where our stuff might be, so that could help. They're half hidden behind that stalagmite, so nobody should see you if you're discreet."

We turned and spotted the chests Sam were talking about, stacked on top of each other.

"Okay," I said. "Cal, let's—"

"Having fun, are we?" A voice boomed. I swiveled around, and saw a large figure walking towards us, obscured by shadow.

I paled and stumbled back, feeling for Cal's hand, but couldn't find her. The man stepped out from the shadow, and I gasped.

It was Bolo.

Bolo glanced at me, looking confused. It was then I realized that I'd made a horrible mistake—Bolo hadn't seen me. But he had heard my gasp.

Luckily, Dan diverted his attention before he could get too suspicious. "What do you want?" he snapped.

Bolo turned to the cell with a cruel smile. "Just wanted to check in on my favorite prisoners."

"Yeah, yeah." Sam muttered. "Piss off…Bozo, was it?"

"BOLO!" he roared, then composed himself. "Anyways, I've got some news to share with you that you might like."

"News?" Ender said, and eyebrow raised.

"We activated the Hellstorm five minutes ago."

Sam paled, Nikai groaned, Ender cursed, and Dan gave a start. The others at the back of the cell lowered their heads despondently.

"Now?" Sam said.

"Yes, now." Bolo grinned like a shark. "What's the point in waiting?"

"But…but what about us?" Nikai cried.

Bolo laughed. "Why would we care about you? You're going to spend the last thirty minutes of your life here in this cell."

Dan mumbled something, and Bolo glanced at him with a sneer. "Excuse me?"

"Why?" Dan said, looking up. "What's the point of doing this? What's Klith's plan?"

"What?" Bolo said, taken aback for a moment.

"It it world domination?" Dan continued. "Because if it is, I'm not sure blowing up the world from the inside out is going about it the right way."

Bolo was silent for a moment before sneering again. "Klith has his own reasons for doing what he does."

"So in other words, you don't know." Dan said disdainfully. "If that's all, then screw off."

"Arrogant down to your last moments, I see." Bolo growled. "Let's see if you'll keep that bravado." And with that he strode off with a scowl.

"Toni, Cal," Dan said, his voice filled with determination, "search the chests and get us out of here."

It was then we heard a loud shout. We all turned in the direction of the sound.

Jax stood in the center of the cavern next to the Hellstorm, surrounded by pigmen. He pointed to the nether portals and snapped his fingers. The obsidian frames shattered like glass, and the portals winked out. No reinforcements would be coming.

"Well, well, well." Bolo sneered as he walked towards Jax, drawing a large netherite sword. "Looks like we've got an intruder."

"Quit it with the clichés," Jax said coldly, and snapped his fingers. The bars of the obsidian cell shattered like glass, and Dan dived out of the cell with surprising agility, punching out a pigman and taking their sword. I ran over to the stack of chests and pushed them over, scattering an assortment of emeralds, armor, and weapons all over the ground. I picked up a quiver and a bow and tossed it to Sam. She caught the quiver and bow and winced a little.

"You in a good enough condition to fight?" I asked.

Sam smiled dryly. "It's not like I've got much of a choice. And besides, it's you guys fighting on the front lines, not me."

"Thanks for the reminder," I grumbled.

Everyone in the cell who wasn't unconscious ran out and grabbed themselves a weapon and some armor.

"Enough chit chat," Dan snarled as he tossed his golden sword away and picked up two obsidian scimitars. "It's payback time."

Yeah, I know. I'm a prick.

Originally I was going to make the climax of this story one big chapter, but then I realized that that was taking too long (and also my procrastination issues wouldn't allow it).

Also I really could have come up with a better name for the chapter, but I disn't wanna delay this chapter any longer.

To make up for it, Part 2 will definitely (probably) be coming out this week. I'm not sure if there'll be a Part 3 or not, but we'll have to see.

Again, really sorry! Have a nice day!

Also yeah, abrupt ending, but I really just want to get this chapter out.

Krios