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“You’re right,” said Stan, and he looked at the ground for a moment, letting the memory of the player called Mr A leave his mind, like letting a balloon soar up to the sky. And with this his mind was clear again. When he looked up at the three players looking back at him, he knew what had to be done.
“It’s time, isn’t it,” he said. It was not a question. They all knew that the time had come.
“Let’s end this,” said Kat, nodding in Charlie’s direction.
Charlie walked up the white frame of blocks, took a deep breath, and pulled out the twelve Eyes of Ender. Each ornate portal frame block had an indent in the middle, the perfect fit for one Eye of Ender. Charlie walked around the outside ring of the portal, carefully fitting one Eye of Ender into each of the twelve blocks that made up the portal frame. When the last Eye was fitted into place, the twelve eyes glowed purple simultaneously, and for a few seconds, they did nothing but give off an eerie sound and emit copious amounts of purple particles. Then, all at once, the space within the portal showed not a drop down into a pit of lava but a dark, spectral space that seemed to go on forever, speckled with luminous dots of all colours, giving Stan the impression that he was staring into some deep, untouched realm of the cosmos.
Stan, Charlie, Kat, DZ and Oob gathered around the portal, looking into the ominous black depths. Stan looked around at his friends.
“Are we ready?” he asked.
A scan of everyone’s face showed four brave, well-equipped warriors, ready to tackle whatever the ominous End dimension had in store.
With an almighty yell of “BOOYAH!” DZ jumped off the frame and into the black portal, which swallowed him instantly. Charlie was about to jump into the portal next, but he was interrupted when Oob fell into the portal by way of his aimless wandering. Charlie followed behind him. Kat scratched Rex behind the ears. They knew from Charlie’s book that dogs could not enter the End, but they were confident that Rex would manage to find them should they re-enter the Overworld alive. And, with closed eyes and a deep breath, she too disappeared into the depths of the End portal.
Stan looked around at the room. He realized that this underground chamber of stone and lava might very well be his last view of the Overworld in Minecraft. Taking a deep breath, and with the image of a dead King Kev and a free Elementia in his head, Stan jumped off the portal frame and fell into the black void in a freefall.
Whereas the travel through the Nether portal had felt as though he were being squeezed through a tube, Stan found that immediately after entering the End portal, he landed feet-first onto a platform of black rock that he recognized as obsidian. And while the Nether had been hot and dry, Stan felt no significant change in the atmosphere of the End other than an apparent dormant static that hung in the air.
Stan looked around and saw that his friends were looking at the room they had spawned in, which appeared to be made of a type of lunar rock similar to the base of the frame of the End portal. They were completely surrounded by it, and Stan felt his stomach drop. Were they underground? Was the task of the End to mine around until they located their goal? He voiced this question to the others, and immediately, the air of the group turned to panic.
“Hey, guys, don’t worry, all right?” said Charlie, taking his pickaxe to one of the stone blocks. “I’ll mine around a little bit. I seriously doubt that the final challenge of Minecraft would be a gigantic mining world.” Charlie angled his aim diagonally and started to tunnel upwards. The others followed him.
The further upwards they tunnelled, the more Stan’s unease grew. As Charlie’s pickaxe broke the surface and struck air, Stan couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something …
“… watching us!” cried Stan as he was charged by a pair of Endermen. He cut the first one on the side with his axe, and it teleported away, while the other one was killed instantly by a lucky shot that took off its head.
“They’re everywhere!” yelled DZ as the wounded mob reappeared behind Stan and DZ ended its life with a stab of the sword. “Look down!”
Without thinking, three players obeyed DZ’s command and stared at the moon-white ground. Stan heard DZ’s calm voice give a command.
“Oob, I need you to look around and tell us how many Endermen are out there.”
“What?” came Oob’s disgruntled voice. “Won’t the large, scary, black things kill me?”
“Don’t worry, you’re an NPC. They won’t notice you.”
“But …”
“Just do it, Oob. I swear you’ll be all right,” came DZ’s voice, a slight edge to it now.
A few moments later came Oob’s response. “They are everywhere. I see their eyes going even far off into the distance. How are we to defeat all of them?”
“Don’t worry, guys,” said DZ, as if sensing the air of panic in the group increase tenfold. “I know how we can kill them. Take these. I found them as we were going through the mountains.” Stan heard DZ fumbling, and a few moments later Stan saw a block land at his feet. It was orange, and it appeared to be some kind of plant, but it was only when Stan picked it up and saw the eerie face carved into it that he realized that it was a pumpkin.
“And what do you expect me to do with this?” came Kat’s irate voice from just to the left of Stan.
“Take off your helmet and put it on your head.”
Stan was struck by a sudden notion that his battle with Mr A may have knocked something loose inside DZ’s head. Charlie said in tones of dripping sarcasm, “Yeah, you first, DZ.”
“Gladly,” said DZ calmly, and Stan sensed that he had stood up. He barely viewed DZ standing upright and looking ridiculous with his head stuck into the bottom of the pumpkin. The carved pumpkin face was where DZ’s own face should have been.
“DZ, you look like an idiot. Where are you going with this?” hissed Kat, as if she were afraid that talking too loudly would provoke the crowds of Endermen roaming ominously among them.
Stan watched DZ walk right up to an Enderman and stare directly into its eyes. Amazingly, the Enderman didn’t begin to shake, teleport behind him, or, for that matter, acknowledge his presence at all. DZ used this to his advantage, and one stab through the chest later, the Enderman was nothing more than an Ender Pearl sitting idly on the ground.
Before any of them could voice their stunned amazement, DZ explained. “You can see out the eyeholes of the pumpkin, and even though you can’t see that great, the obstruction prevents the Endermen from being able to detect you. Seriously, they have no idea that you’re even there. You can just walk up to them and kill them.”
Stan didn’t need any more encouraging. He ripped his diamond helmet off his head and haphazardly shoved it into his inventory. He proceeded to snatch up the pumpkin and jam it awkwardly onto his head. DZ was definitely right about one thing: the pumpkin СКАЧАТЬ