The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay
in her head and stomach, and she fell to the street – dead.
Stan, Kat, Charlie, Jayden and Sally were too stunned to speak, move, or, in Stan’s case, think. A player, twice the size of a normal player who was dressed just like a bull, walked up to Adoria’s disfigured corpse and pulled out the axe, haphazardly brushing the body to the side.
This heinous act pushed Jayden and Sally over the edge. They both leaped out into the clearing, crying like Spartans, terrifying looks on both of their faces. Jayden whipped out his diamond axe, and Sally drew out two iron swords, holding one in both hands. Then, still issuing their warrior yell, they battled with the giant man.
Stan, his brain still unable to process what he had just seen, didn’t yet feel any sadness at the loss of Adoria. He just blindly followed commands from his brain to run into the woods after Kat, Charlie and Rex.
At the edge of the woods, he looked back at the Adorian Village.
It was like Blackraven’s house but a thousand times worse. Fire was everywhere. The houses were a blazing inferno, all of them starting to crumble already. Stan looked at the brick Town Hall and saw it explode from the inside out. Bricks flew across the town. But the worst was the people. Everywhere, new players burst out of their burning houses, wooden and stone swords drawn, but most of them were immediately felled by flaming arrows from the bows of riot control.
Stan looked down one street and saw a girl with a pink blouse, blue skirt, and white kneesocks kill a riot control player from behind with her wooden sword, but then the giant Minotaur-man came up behind her and raised his axe. Stan looked away as he heard the swish and thud of the diamond blade.
Stan was sickened by the whole event more than anything else he’d encountered so far. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. But sickened most of all. Why would they burn down the village anyway, even after Adoria had tried to reason with them? All of those lower-level players, gone …
Stan keeled over on his side, threw up on the ground, and cried.
The King was not happy.
The chief of police had searched the entire city with his force, and they had found no sign of the assassin or his two friends. They had, however, found records of the players from the front gates. Their names were Stan2012, KitKat783 and KingCharles_XIV. All of them were under level fifteen. They must have come from the Adorian Village for the boy to be such a good shot. It was a relief, the King thought, that Minotaurus was finally destroying the loathsome place.
The doorbell rang and the King pressed a button to open the door. Caesar and his partner, Charlemagne, walked in and bowed. The King absentmindedly pointed his sword at them, and they all stood up.
“What is it, my liege?” asked Charlemagne.
“Have you captured the assassin, sir?” asked Caesar.
The King looked at his two highest generals and said slowly, “No. No, as a matter of fact I did not capture them. They are not in the city at all. That is why I called you two down here. I need your advice.”
“But why just us, sir?” Charlemagne asked.
“Because this mustn’t be voted on. I would like to discuss it with my two most trusted men, and then I personally will decide what shall be done. I am suspending the Council due to the present state of emergency. I can only trust you two.”
“What state of emergency, sir?” asked Caesar. “I know that somebody tried to kill you, which is awful and treacherous, but with the whole server looking for them, won’t they be dead by the end of the week?”
The King slowly turned his head towards Caesar. “That’s just the thing, Caesar. Not everybody will want him dead. I accept the fact that the lower-level citizens of the server hate me – it is a necessary result of maintaining the lifestyle of the upper class, which is so near and dear to my heart – but up until now the lower class has not had the courage to do anything about it.
“Now, one of them has broken that barrier. He tried to assassinate me right in front of my own people. What is to stop others from thinking that they can do the same? If that is their mindset, there may be a rebellion on our hands. That is why the situation is so fragile right now. Our top priority must be to find and kill that player, so that the lower-levels know what happens to a player who betrays his King.”
Caesar and Charlemagne shot sideways glances at each other. They very much enjoyed their way of life as upper-level citizens, and they had no desire to have that way of life destroyed by a lower-level rebellion.
“Yes, sir, you’re quite right,” said Charlemagne.
“I suggest,” said Caesar, “that we not only put the entire server up to the task of finding them, but we span our forces out far and wide. If the players did intend to start a rebellion, they’ll plan it abroad and not near Element City or the Adorian Village.”
The King nodded. “You’re right. But I’ve had a thought, and your thoughts on this idea are the main reason I wished to speak to you two. My thought was to send RAT1 out to find them.”
The King’s generals were taken aback by this radical idea. Charlemagne said slowly, “Sir, are you sure that … that … that team is competent enough to handle a task of this magnitude?”
“Sir, do you remember the last time that you sent them on a mission?” added Caesar sceptically. “I mean, they may have found the target, but …”
“I remember, I remember!” said the King irritably, banishing the unpleasant incident from his mind. “However, they are by far the most talented group of assassins I have at my disposal. They did fail miserably last time, but they have not failed at any other mission that I have ever assigned to them. And after all, a second failure would give me motive to have the lot of them executed.”
Caesar and Charlemagne mulled this over for a minute. Then Charlemagne said, “Yes, yes, my lord, that is a good idea, when you put it that way. I support it.”
Caesar nodded. “As do I. And also, as it happens, I just had an idea. Why don’t Charlemagne and I both assemble some of your forces and comb the kingdom, looking for conspirators? Maybe make a few … how should I put it … hasty judgement calls?” An evil smile broke over Caesar’s face. “That would certainly lower rebel morale.”
The King nodded. “Yes, that is a wise idea, Caesar. I will give you each twenty soldiers to comb over the entire country. You leave tomorrow. Dismissed.”
Charlemagne and Caesar left the room, and the King smiled. Maybe this won’t turn out so bad after all, he thought as he ordered RAT1 to the room.
Stan was unsure of how long he lay crying in the pool of his own vomit. All he knew was that at some point, he heard Kat’s gruff voice telling him that they had to run, that riot control was about to start to search the woods. Stan didn’t care. He wanted to just lie there forever, but he still went through the robotic movements of following the neon-orange back of Kat’s shirt into the woods.
Stan was dead to the world. His brain was numb and dumb from the destruction and death that he had just witnessed. He was unaware of the fact that they walked for hours or that the heavy woods eventually thinned out into a wooded plain but soon thickened again into a dense jungle.
He was vaguely aware of Charlie and Kat trying to decide what to do next and of their eventual decision to climb one of the hundred-foot-high trees. They scaled the vines growing up the sides and ended up on a branch.
Stan was still sickened by the senseless murder and destruction that he had seen back in the Adorian Village, and he couldn’t help wondering why the government had attacked the virtually unarmed village. He understood now that they