The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay
players, we would like to thank you for the services that you have done us personally in killing the Spider Jockey that had plagued our village. We would also like to thank you for the work you are doing to make life on this server the best possible, not just for the people of our village, but for the citizens of this server as a whole. You are welcome back to our village at any time that you would like, and you will be welcomed with open arms. Goodbye, and good luck.”
The entire village simultaneously nodded in unison. Stan was more touched by this simple gesture from these simple people than he had been from anything he had seen in Minecraft so far. Even if it hadn’t been for the Adorian Village or the deaths of Blackraven and Crazy Steve and the like, he would have been very keen to defeat the King for the sole purpose of making life better for these NPCs.
Stan didn’t hear what Charlie said in response to this. He was too busy reaffirming the image of King Kev in his mind as public enemy number one for abusing these people and all other people in Elementia. As the four players gave an about-face and headed away from the village, Stan was surer than ever that there was nothing in the End that was unsurpassable if they kept in mind the image of an Elementia free of King Kev.
The trek through the desert was long and drawn out, as Stan had expected. He knew that the Ender Desert was large, but he hadn’t realized just how expansive the biome really was. Stan had been to forests, plains and jungles since he had been in Minecraft, but this desert biome was by far the largest that he had encountered, and it all looked the same. There were small knolls of sand blocks scattered here and there, and cacti dotted the landscape, punctuated by an occasional pool of lava or water.
Stan didn’t understand how Charlie, who was navigating, didn’t get lost in the endless dune sea. He walked up to ask him about it at one point, but he didn’t need to, because he saw. Charlie had an Eye of Ender in his hand, and every so often he would toss it into the air. In a burst of purple particles, the eye would float forward a few blocks in a certain direction and then fall back into Charlie’s outstretched hand. Charlie seemed focused, so he didn’t ask, but Stan believed that the Eyes were most likely floating towards the entrance to the End.
Stan fell back next to Kat. “So do you have any ideas, at all, about the End? Like where it is or what’s in there?” he asked her.
Kat glanced at him and smirked. “Honestly, man, I have no idea where the End is. And frankly, whenever I think about what we’re actually gonna find there, I end up almost peeing my pants. Whatever it is, though, it is not gonna be easy to get to. I’m willing to put money on the fact that the King was only able to make a stash there because he was able to use his operating powers.”
“What are operating powers?” asked Stan. At Kat’s look of disbelief, he said, “Well, I’ve heard a couple of people mention them before, but I’ve never actually found out what they are.”
“Well,” said Kat, “operating powers are special powers that you get when you start a server, or you can be given them from somebody else with operating powers. Basically, if you have operating powers, you get to be totally in control. You can create and destroy any blocks you want instantly, you can shoot arrows and fireballs from your fingers, you can create explosions anywhere you want and you can fly.” Now it was Stan’s turn to make a face of disbelief. “Yeah, that’s right, fly. Really fast, too. Operating powers make you a Minecraft superhero. Also, you can let people back on the server after they’ve been banned.”
“Wait, what?” exclaimed Stan. His eyes were glowing now, and a grin was spreading over his face. “With operating powers, you can return people to the server after they’ve been killed?” Kat nodded. “Is there any way that you can get operating powers? Can you learn them somehow?”
Kat gave a short laugh, and a dark look crossed her face. “Stan, if there were any way to learn them, there would be ridiculous structures popping up all over the place, and people would be returning from the dead all the time! The point of operating powers on servers like this one is to regulate activities on the server, and to prevent Griefing. You can’t just learn them.”
Stan felt a little let down at the idea that he couldn’t become an operator through training or any type of work or practice. It would have made him practically impossible to stop when he tried to destroy the King. But this thought raised a new, alarming one in his head.
“The King doesn’t have operating powers, does he?” asked Stan quickly as he tried not to imagine what fighting someone with operating powers would be like.
Kat rolled her eyes. “Stan, haven’t you been paying attention to anything that anyone’s told us about the history of this place?”
Stan didn’t answer. Truthfully, history was his worst subject in school, and he could never remember the facts in real life, let alone in Minecraft. Kat sighed, and answered his question in a tone of exasperation.
“The King gave up his operating powers a while ago. Trust me, if he still had operating powers, we wouldn’t have gotten out of the gate of the King’s castle. The King thought that if he gave them up, then he’d be equal to everybody else, and it would make people stop wanting to revolt against him.”
“Well, that plan kind of blew up in his face,” replied Stan with a smirk. “Look at what we’re doing!”
“You say that,” said Kat grimly, “but the King’s plan did work for a decent amount of time, seeing as we’re the first who have even tried to overthrow him since he gave his powers up, unless you count what Avery did.”
“Yeah, but that’s just because most people are too scared of his forces,” retorted Stan. “I can’t have been the only one to notice that over half the people back at the castle helped us escape.”
Kat opened her mouth as if to say something, but a pensive look crossed her face and she closed it again. Instead, she reached down and scratched Rex between the ears and continued trekking onwards. Stan did notice, however, that her sword was now in the tight grasp of her right hand. Sensing that their conversation was over, Stan amused himself by watching DZ, who was practicing advanced sword-fighting techniques on a wandering sheep that was running for its life.
The sun was sinking when Stan finally spotted tall formations on the distant skyline. As the four players and Rex approached them, Stan saw the welcome sight of mountains towering up over the desert plains. The setting sun splashed a brilliant array of colours on the sky, and the natural beauty of the masses of land rising from the ground, silhouetted against the sunset, was breathtaking. The group actually stopped walking for a moment because Charlie had dropped the Eyes in his hand, transfixed by the beauty of the landscape. Kat had to literally pull Charlie away from staring into the sunset in order for the journey to continue.
Charlie found himself continuously drawn to the majesty of the mountains, from the herds of wild sheep roaming the steep slopes to the black veins of coal ore speckling the rocky cliff faces to the springs of water and lava that occasionally ran out of the sides of the mountains. Eventually, Kat took over the navigation, as Stan had to keep Charlie from getting distracted and Kat, after the episode in the desert, flat-out refused to let DZ navigate.
Kat could tell from the Eyes of Ender that they were nearing their goal. The trajectory of the Eyes thrown in the air led the group to a cave situated in the side of the cliff. As they headed down to the cave, Stan putting up torches as they went, Charlie suddenly spoke out.
“Hey, guys!”
“We get it, Charlie,” said Kat through gritted teeth as she fumbled with another Eye. “The mountainside grass is more beautiful than the grass in the forest. We get it.”
“No, not that, that! Look at those blocks there!”
Stan