I'm so sorry for the lack of updates, my school year has been finishing up so I've been busy with assignments and other projects. Thankfully summer is coming up so that means more updates hopefully! Anyway, here's an extra-long chapter for you all!

Morning arrived and the rain had stopped hours ago, though the air was still somewhat chilly because it was early spring. There was an abundance of water droplets and dew in the foliage. Monsters had either despawned or burned due to the heat of the sun and passive mobs were beginning to come out of hiding.

Soren, Magnus, and Gabriel exited the cave and stepped into the sun. After they had gathered everything they needed in their inventories (not without Gabriel nagging the griefer and the architect about double AND triple-checking to make sure they remembered all of their belongings), the group headed off in search of the temple.

Most of the trip was silent as no one was in the mood to talk. None of them had slept well due to the thunder and lighting from the previous night (Gabriel and Soren were particularly sensitive to the noise) along with their worries about the journey so far keeping them awake.

As the group walked through a plains biome, Magnus rubbed his eyes in an attempt to wake himself up. Gabriel looked straight ahead as he held his sword in his right hand. The warrior tried not to doze off, though Magnus often had to lightly tap him awake using the outside of his hand if his attempts were unsuccessful. Soren tried his best to focus his eyes on the map so he would remain alert.

By late morning, Soren noticed a wall of what appeared to be a tall structure in the distance, hidden by some short hills. He looked down and saw they were getting closer to their destination according to the map. The architect smiled and turned to Magnus and Gabriel.

"Good news, we're almost at the temple. I can see it up ahead."

Both Gabriel and Magnus immediately perked up.

"It's about time!" Magnus exclaimed as he ran ahead of the group to get closer to the temple.

Gabriel sighed in relief and smiled. "Thank goodness, I was beginning to think we'd never make it."

As the trio hiked closer to the structure in the distance, they began to notice a tall wall made of several types of stone blocks surrounding the building, similar to the one back in Beacontown. There also seemed to be overlapping noises from inside that became louder as they walked toward it.

Eventually, Soren, Magnus, and Gabriel were in front of the stone wall. There was an abundance of sounds coming from whatever this wall was made to block. The three looked at one another, confused at what they saw and heard.

The temple was said to be abandoned, right?

Gabriel stepped forward and knocked on the stone wall, unsure what else to do. Suddenly, the wall opened and became an entrance revealing the area as a noisy, bustling city. There were groups of people scattered about doing ordinary tasks such as entering large, tall buildings, purchasing items from outdoor stands, communicating with one another, as well as construction work.

The group walked through the town, staring at their surroundings with their mouths hung open, bewildered at what they saw. Magnus, in particular, was fuming; nowhere did he spot the ancient temple they had spent the past few days searching for.

The griefer squeezed his fists and turned to Soren. "Soren, what is this?" he asked, sticking his hands out at their surroundings to elevate his point.

Soren looked at Magnus, then at the map, and finally at the city in front of them. "What on earth? My research said nothing about a civilization nearby, it even stated the temple had been abandoned for years." The architect stared at the ground and brushed his fingers through his hair, utterly puzzled.

"Then where are we, did we take a wrong turn?"

"That can't be possible, I followed the map exactly!" he paused before continuing, "Although it is quite old, the information could be outdated." Soren's expression shifted to anger and he slapped his forehead. "Dammit, I should've known something like this would happen!"

"So what the hell are we going to do?" Magnus asked, raising his voice.

As the two began to bicker, Gabriel stood silently watching the crowded city. His eyes were now wide open and he no longer had any problems staying awake with the constant noise and traffic surrounding them. He winced at the overlapping sounds of people shouting and running from place to place. The warrior never liked crowds, all the groups of people shouting and scurrying were far too overstimulating. It was the main reason he was always hesitant to attend conventions as a guest speaker, as well as why his fortress was located out of town. Gabriel's eye began to twitch and he squeezed his hands together for pressure; at times like these, he was grateful that his helmet was constructed with noise-canceling in mind.

Gabriel shook his head and turned to see Soren and Magnus arguing about the map and their current predicament. The warrior frowned and walked between the two to break up the fight.

"The both of you, enough arguing! We've only just entered the premises, perhaps the temple is deeper within this city." Gabriel said with a stern voice.

The two were silent momentarily before Soren sighed and put the map back in his inventory, "You have a fair point."

"Then let's get searching, the noise is giving me a headache." the warrior replied, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples as he said that last part.

The three began to walk through the bustling city, searching for any signs of a temple. If it were within the borders of the city, chances are it wouldn't have been too hard to spot as the style of the civilization was more modern compared to the traditional ancient style of the temple shown in the image on the map and books. However, the large size made navigating the area difficult for the group.

After an hour of searching within the city, the group stood in an alley for a short break. Thankfully, no fans recognized or attempted to distract them from their task. However, it didn't do much in lowering their disappointment towards the search thus far.

Gabriel was looking out into the streets, trying to see if there was any sign of the temple from where they were. Magnus was leaning against a wall looking down, kicking an empty water bottle with his foot. Soren sat on a barrel and studied the map and several history books, trying to figure out if they had made an error during their travels.

The architect closed his eyes and let out an exasperated groan. "I don't understand!" he exclaimed, "we've been looking in this area for the past hour, and it's nowhere to be seen."

Gabriel and Magnus looked at one another and frowned. Back when The Order traveled together as a complete group, they rarely had such difficulty finding a specific location using maps or compasses. Back then most of the group assumed it was due to luck or skill; now they knew it was due to the command block. Without it, it made performing certain tasks a lot more difficult.

Gabriel closed his eyes and sighed, "Maybe they tore it down to build the city."

Soren shook his head, "That's impossible! Nobody in their right mind would tear down a place with such historical significance." The architect put his head in his hands, "Agh! This feels hopeless!"

"Well, we can't give up now!" Magnus replied, now standing up straight. "We couldn't have come all this way for nothing. We need to figure out how to get to the realm to find Ellegaard."

"Magnus has a point, Soren," Gabriel said, gently patting the architect on the back, "maybe we need to look for a new angle."

Soren lifted his head from his hands, looked up at the others, and sighed; perhaps they were right. He took the map out again but before he could open it, a small, fast figure snatched it from his hands.

The group stared at Soren's now empty hand in shock.

"What the hell?"

"I just had it!"

"What on earth could've-" Gabriel was saying before they heard a small scampering sound.

The group looked to see an old Arctic fox at the end of the alley with the map in its mouth. It stared at the men before looking at a cobblestone wall and jumping through a missing block.

Magnus gasped and ran to the wall, "Hey come back!" He stuck his head through the hole that the fox jumped through. "That doesn't belong to you!"

"Did that fox just steal the map?" Gabriel asked, turning to Soren.

"It doesn't matter!" Soren stated, "We need to get it back, that map is a historical artifact and vital in finding our destination!"

Magnus began to punch the wall with his bare fists, breaking the stone to make a large enough hole for them to walk through. By the time the griefer finished, the trio ran through the hole and chased the fox out of the city. However, despite its size and age, the fox was quick on its paws and remained ahead of the group.

"Come back you little-" Magnus proceeded to shout before tripping over a short cobblestone wall, colliding with the dry grass. He quickly got back up and continued to chase the animal.

Eventually, the fox skidded to a halt and dropped the map in the middle of an acacia biome field. Soren, Gabriel, and Magnus stopped in their tracks and took a moment to catch their breath from chasing the animal.

The architect put a hand to his chest, wincing at the tightness in it. He tried to take long deep breaths between gasps, but it felt like he was breathing through a straw. Soren quickly took out his blue inhaler, brought it toward his lips, and pumped it. Soon, his shortness of breath dissipated and he put the inhaler away.

As he put a hand to his aching back, Soren took the map off the ground and put it back in his inventory. "Why on earth did it drop it," he was saying before raising his head, "here?"

Gabriel and Magnus recovered from their exhaustion and looked ahead as well.

In front of them stood an old ruin resembling the temple drawn on the map, though it was showing its age with vines covering several parts of the building and parts of the roof and walls being missing. The temple was mostly made of sandstone, terracotta blocks, and some stone accents.

The three stared at the temple in awe; they almost couldn't believe it. Soren marveled at the architectural design as he had been eager to see what the building looked like in person for months.

"This is incredible," Soren exclaimed with a huge smile, flapping his hands and bouncing up and down, "we're finally here!"

Gabriel was silent before looking at the white fox standing in front of them. "Were you trying to lead us here?" he asked, kneeling to the mammal's level.

The fox made no sound and scurried up the stairs of the temple. It found a place by the doors, walked in a circle, and curled up on the floor to rest.

The group stood silent before Magnus began to walk ahead of them. "What are we waiting for? Let's head in and find that spell!" the griefer exclaimed.

The trio proceeded to quietly walk up the steps of the ruin, careful not to disturb the old white fox. The iron doors were wide open and unguarded so they could enter the building with little issue. The inside, however, was incredibly dark and the only sources of light came from missing blocks in the walls allowing in small amounts of sunlight.

There was a staircase that led to an area downstairs. Soren quickly crafted a torch and led the group down the stairs, the glow of the flame guiding them. As the group headed down the staircase, they noticed some art carved into the wall that resembled ancient cave or pyramid art. The drawings mostly displayed five people holding staffs and casting powerful spells with other humans bowing before them. Below each picture contained some text in an ancient language.

"What do you think these mean?" Magnus asked out loud.

Gabriel shook his head, "I'm not sure, it reminds me of wall carvings that you would find in a desert or jungle temple." the warrior replied as he took another step downward.

The three made it to the end of the staircase that led them to a large room that had pressure plates filling each block of the floor. At the end of the room, there was a doorway to another area of the temple.

Magnus looked at the floor and rubbed the back of his scarred neck. "Oh, wow, that's a LOT of pressure plates," he muttered, suppressing a nervous chuckle.

Gabriel took a knee and studied the pressure plates on the floor. "Hmmm, we should be careful. Based on the behaviors of a temple, this could likely be a trap," he stated, scratching his beard.

"The question is," Soren replied, "what exactly is the trap?"

The group was silent for a minute before Magnus took a deep breath.

"Only one way to find out."

Before Soren or Gabriel could object, the griefer stepped onto the closest pressure plate. For a moment, nothing abnormal occurred. Magnus raised an eyebrow and looked back at the others.

"Nothing's happening, I think it's sa-"

As the griefer spoke, Gabriel and Soren looked at where Magnus was standing. The warrior noticed that a section of the ceiling slid to the side to reveal a dispenser beginning to pour lava.

Soren's mouth became dry and he nearly dropped the torch. Gabriel's face morphed into a horrified expression.

"Magnus, watch out!" he cried, reaching his hand out.

Magnus was confused for a split second and looked up to see lava beginning to pour from the ceiling. He froze, not fully processing what was happening.

Gabriel grabbed the griefer and pulled him back to where he and Soren were standing, just before the lava could touch him. The group watched as the lava fell through the block Magnus previously stood on, destroying it.

The warrior looked back at Magnus who was still quiet. "Are you alright? That lava didn't harm you, did it?" he asked while examining Magnus's arms to make sure the lava didn't burn through his armor or touch his skin.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Magnus replied, his raspy voice somewhat shaky due to his near-death experience. He looked back at the empty hole where the pressure plate he stood on once was. "I can't believe that lava went straight through that block!"

Soren remained quiet, relieved that Magnus wasn't harmed. However, he couldn't help but curse at himself for freezing up and not reacting sooner; if Gabriel hadn't swooped in and gotten Magnus out, the griefer could've been killed, or at the very least burnt. The last thing the architect wanted was for him to lose another friend all because he was too cowardly to step in and take charge. Soren clenched his pant pocket with his free hand.

Gabriel and Magnus, on the other hand, didn't seem to notice Soren being deep in thought.

"Well, that answers your question, Gabe," the griefer said, looking at the new hole in the floor due to the running lava that was now beginning to stop.

"Do all of the dispensers pour out lava?" Gabriel asked.

The trio was quiet before Soren walked up to the pressure plate next to the hole where Magnus was previously standing. He hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath. He stepped a foot on the plate and quickly pulled himself back to see what would happen.

Instead of lava, this dispenser splashed a night vision potion onto the floor.

"From what I understand," Soren said, turning his head toward the rest of the group, "all of these presser plates trigger dispensers that drop a variety of objects that are either harmful or harmless."

"How do we tell which pressure plate drops good or bad stuff?" Magnus asked, crossing his arms.

The architect examined the pressure plates closer; they were each stone and had no marks or indicators to differentiate them so there was no way of telling which dropped what. He grumbled in frustration; the sorcerers must have memorized which plates to go on, like a secret code.

"I'm not sure they appear to be identical."

Gabriel turned his head to Soren, "Perhaps we can build over them?"

"The ceiling is too low, we won't have enough space," Soren replied, shaking his head in frustration. He looked back at the floor full of pressure plates. "If we run as fast as we can, we can make it to the other side without having the items coming from the dispenser touch us."

Magnus frowned and shook his head. "Have you lost your mind? In case you forgot, I nearly died from the first one we stepped on!"

"If we're quick about it, we should be okay."

"We should at least go together to ensure no one gets harmed," Gabriel added.

Magnus was quiet for a moment before letting out a frustrated groan. "Okay, let's give this a shot," he said, walking closer to where Soren and Gabriel were saying, "but if one of us gets burnt by lava, don't say I didn't warn you!"

The three men stood next to one another, staring at the pressure plates in front of them.

Soren took a deep breath, "On the count of three, we'll begin running. Don't look back and keep moving; otherwise, the dispensers will dump their inhabitants on us. Understand?"

Magnus and Gabriel silently nodded.

Soren looked at the other side and swallowed a lump in his throat.

"One…two…three!"

And just like that, they began bolting towards the other side. As they continued stepping on pressure plates, sounds of potion bottles breaking, arrows being shot, and liquids pouring out of the dispensers filled the room. Soren, Gabriel, and Magnus tried to ignore the noises and continued running, not looking back.

Eventually, the men made it to the other side of the room unscathed, though not without needing to catch their breath.

Gabriel looked towards Magnus and Soren. "Are you both okay?" he asked, trying to steady his breath.

Magnus and Soren silently nodded. The architect turned to the griefer and gave him a small smile. "See Magnus, everything turned out fine."

"Fine?" Magnus exclaimed, "I practically saw my life flash before my eyes!" He stood straight and crossed his arms.

"Look, the important thing is nobody got hurt," Soren looked to the doorway, not wanting to look at the chaotic mess behind them, "and we're one step closer to obtaining the spell."

Magnus and Gabriel turned their heads to the doorway as well. The doors were wood so the trio could enter with little issue. The doors were a gateway to a smaller, darker room with a spiral staircase leading to a room on the higher floor.

Soren once again led the group, using the torch's light to guide them safely up the stairs. Once they finally made it to the room the stairs led to, the men had to shield their faces with their hands due to the area being much brighter than the previous one they were in due to the sunlight protruding from the large gaps in the stone walls of the aging temple.

As soon as their eyes adjusted to the newly found brightness, Soren, Gabriel, and Magnus looked around the room. It was a relatively decent size; there were several chests, bookshelves, brewing stations, cauldrons, and anything else a sorcerer could need, scattered throughout the room.

"This is incredible!" Soren exclaimed, beaming, "We're standing in the room where powerful sorcerers practiced their magic centuries ago!" He gazed in awe at his surroundings before his expression shifted to a bittersweet smile. "If only Ivor were with us, he always loved historical landmarks."

"We'll have to tell him about it once we return," Gabriel said, looking up at the gaping hole in the ceiling letting the early afternoon sunlight in.

"Well now that we're here we should hurry up and find the spell, it has to be in this room somewhere," Magnus added, his voice inflecting an impatient tone.

Gabriel glanced at the middle of the room and raised an eyebrow at what he spotted, "Now what's this?"

Magnus and Soren shifted their view to the center of the room and noticed a book sitting on top of a lectern. The three men walked up to it to get a better look. The book was rather dusty, likely due to a lack of care and dusting. Soren took the book off the lectern and ever so carefully wiped the dust off the cover with his hand, careful not to get it in anyone's face.

The words became clearer to read once the dust was off the cover. The book's cover was the shade of periwinkle with the title of the book written in golden text, "Property of Adeline Waybright"

The men were silent before Gabriel spoke, "Is this a diary?"

"It must be," Soren stated, "or it could be a book Adeline was in the process of writing."

"What are you waiting for?" Magnus asked, playfully giving Soren an elbow, "Open it, it may have what we need!"

The architect hesitated for a second before opening the book. The pages were discolored due to their age, but the text was still clear even after all this time. Soren took his time flipping through the pages to make sure he didn't skip the page with the spell they needed.

Soren frowned, "So far, all of this is journal entries and information on other magical properties." he said as he continued skimming through the book.

"Didn't you say that banishing Iris was the last thing Adeline did with her powers? Maybe that spell is towards the end of the book." Magnus pointed out.

Soren skipped ahead until the pages became blank, and then flipped back a few pages to find the last entry.

The architect smiled, "Aha! I found it." he exclaimed.

Both Magnus and Gabriel's eyes widened. Magnus huddled closer to Soren.

"What does it say?" he nearly shouted in the architect's ear.

Soren scanned the page and scratched his beard. "It says this spell will allow one or more individuals to enter the realm. Once we are there, we'll be able to leave just as long as we carry this spellbook."

The pair sighed in relief. Now they at least knew that once they entered the realm, they wouldn't be stuck there for the rest of their life.

"What's the actual spell?" Gabriel asked, raising an eyebrow.

Soren looked down at the page once again. "It says that the first step is to set up four structures at an equal distance from one another in a square. The structure contains sand, soul soil, and soul torches."

"I got plenty of sand, but soul soil and torches? You only get those in the nether." Magnus asked, twirling his leftover mask fabric with his finger.

"There are chests everywhere; hopefully, the supplies we need are already here," Gabriel stated. He turned back to Soren, "You keep reading the directions, we'll look through the chests for materials."

As Magnus and Gabriel began to rummage in the chests scattered in the room for the necessary items, Soren continued to read the directions. The architect still couldn't believe he was in the sorcerer's old temple, reading a book written by one of them. Just a month ago he was spending all of his time researching and figuring out more information on the history of Adeline, Iris, and the spell just so there could be a chance to bring their old friend back. Now, with the help of Gabriel and Magnus, he may have a shot.

Gabriel looked up from one of the chests he was rummaging through, "I found some soul soil," he stated, holding it up.

"They didn't have any soul torches," Magnus said, "but I found some coal and soul sand that I can craft some with."

The griefer walked over to a crafting table in the corner of the room and used his newly collected material to craft a few soul torches.

Now that they had the supplies, Gabriel and Magnus walked over to Soren to get a look at the appearance of the structures they had to build. The image drawn on the page showed nine sand blocks laid flat in a three-by-three square, six soul soil blocks, five making a cross on the sand and one more added on the middle, and a soul torch on top of the final piece a soul soil.

"So we just have to set up four of these structures?" Magnus asked.

"That's what the instructions say," Soren said. He turned his head towards the others, "why don't you two let me handle this part? Building complex designs is my specialty."

Gabriel was about to accept Soren's request before Magnus frowned and crossed his arms, "No it's fine, I can do it myself."

The warrior raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure about that?"

Magnus nodded, "Positive, I think I can build a couple of small structures, Gabe. You two just keep reading."

Soren would have objected, but he knew there was no use in arguing with Magnus; he had always been incredibly stubborn. Once he set his mind to something, it was nearly impossible for anyone to talk him out of it.

He sighed, "Alright, but don't hesitate to ask for help."

After twenty minutes of starting, pausing to look at the instructions, tearing everything down, rebuilding, looking at the instructions again, tearing everything down once more because he realized he did it correctly the first time, and rebuilding again, Magnus finally finished the structures,

The griefer put his hands on his waist and smiled, "See, I told you two I could do it," he said, his head turned to Soren and Gabriel.

The warrior gave him an unamused glance, "And it only took nearly half an hour." he replied.

"All that matters is that we have the hardest part out of the way," Soren butted in, wanting to get things back on track. He opened the page once more and read the next step, "all there's left to do is to place the book down in the middle of the room and recite this passage together."

Magnus and Gabriel looked at the page Soren was referring to. There was a passage written in cursive that read:

By the heat of the inferno

With the grit of the sand

Through the pages of a book

Send us to a desolate land

"Sounds simple enough," Gabriel stated.

Soren gently placed the opened book in the middle of the four structures. The group stood in a circle around the book and held one another's hands as the instructions recommended for parties of two or more to hold onto one another in case something went wrong during the spell.

The trio were silent for a moment; almost as if they thought they were about to uncover something that was never meant to be discovered.

Soren swallowed a lump in his throat, "Ready when you both are," he said, not making eye contact with the others.

Gabriel and Magnus shared a glance before finally looking down at the book in front of them to read the page.

All together they began to recite the passage.

"By the heat of the inferno,"

Once they spoke the first sentence, the trio and the book began to omit a faint heavenly glow. Magnus, Gabriel, and Soren paused to take notice, though they still did not let go of one another. However, they failed to notice the soul torch flame beginning to flicker and burn brighter

Gabriel cleared his throat to snap Soren and Magnus back into focus so they could finish reciting the passage together.

"With the grit of the sand,"

As the men spoke those words out loud, the sand and soul soil used to build the four structures detached themselves from the building and began to shift around the room.

"Through the pages of a book,"

Suddenly, the pages of the spell book began to flip rapidly due to the wind caused by the moving sand and soil.

Magnus's shoulders tensed, "Okay, this is getting weird!" he said in a slightly elevated voice as he looked back at what was happening around them.

"Just keep reading!" Soren exclaimed, trying his hardest not to feed into his temptation to look behind him, "We're almost done we just have that last sentence."

The group squeezed each other's hands tightly in case the wind or debris accidentally separated them.

"Send us to a desolate land." they finally shouted in unison.

Just as they read the final line, a white glowing beam projected from the book and circled the group. Soren, Gabriel, and Magnus watched as the light surrounded them and the temple room became less and less visible. Finally, an invisible force yanked the group apart and onto the ground.

Magnus was the first to wake up; he sat up and rested a hand on his throbbing head. He opened his eyes and instead of the room in the temple, he was greeted by a dead, desolate forest. The griefer's jaw dropped, and he looked down to see that he was sitting on gray grass.

He turned to look behind him and saw Gabriel and Soren out cold on the grass from the impact of the spell. Magnus quickly crawled over to them and violently shook the pair awake.

"Guys, wake up, it worked!" he shouted with a grin.

Gabriel opened his eyes and put a hand to his face. "That felt terrible," he groaned, "I never want to do-" but before he could finish, Gabriel's eyes grew wide as plates, and he quickly sat up when he realized they were no longer in the overworld.

Soren woke up and he sat on his knees. "We… we did it?" he asked, rubbing the side of his head.

Magnus nodded, "Yes! Take a look,"

The men stood up and proceeded to look in awe at their surroundings. They almost couldn't believe it, it was real; after all their hard work, they finally made it to the realm.

Now what?

They finally made it! Next time we'll be catching up with Ellegaard :D