War Games - Chapter 32

The Sun finally rose.

Everyone was waking up and getting ready for a massive battle. They have no idea who or what lies within that Infernal Dome.

Gill prepared a breakfast meal for everyone, much to their delight.

“Well… I guess there’s nothing left to do but to go for it.” Magnus said.

Everyone got in a position to see the Dome.

“What’s the plan?” Aiden asked.

“I suggest we use stealth methods to thin out the Corrupt Forces, and gain access to the dome itself. After that, We can bombard the place with cannons.” Nicolai suggested.

Everyone liked that idea in one form or another.

“I’ll go do that. I can use my power to cloak myself, and kill off a bunch of the Corrupt Minions.” Kate said.

“I’m a trained Assassin, If anyone can get in there, it’s me.” Stark said.

Ivor handed  Stark an invisibility potion. Stark walked over to the chest were everyone had put their items, and he pulled out a Firework.

“Unload all the TNT you have in the cannon to bring down the dome, and come over to the shoreline. But wait for my signal.” Stark said, holding the firework in front of Magnus.

“Ellegaard and I can build a barge to get everyone across the sea quickly. Try to kill enemies with ranged attacks.” Olivia said.

Soren gave and Olivia and Stark a salute. Kate rolled her eyes and dived into the sea between where the group was, and the Infernal Dome. Stark dove in right behind her, and they both swam towards the wall.

When Stark got to the wall, He pulled out an Iron Pickaxe and began to chop a hole in the side of Wall, just a few inches of the sea level.

Kate helped Stark grind away at the Steel Wall with her power. She made her hands glow red hot, and padded them as hard as she could, slowly melting the steel.

They didn’t need to burrow inside, they only needed a hole large enough to fit some TNT in.

“Kate, you got something I can use to muffle the sound of the blast with?” Stark asked as he placed the TNT inside

“I can create a sound barrier around it.” Kate said.

Stark placed the TNT in, and pulled the fuse back to where he could light it.

Kate used her power to make a sound barrier, in the form of a dim green sphere that surrounded the TNT. Stark used his lighter to ignite the fuse. Hearing the hissing noise the sparks made, Kate and Stark both took a Deep Breath and dove as deep as they could.

The Explosion didn’t make much noise, but tore a hole in the wall. They both emerged from the water to see that it wasn’t quite big enough to fit into, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed.

Kate used her power to make her hands red hot. Wit her Molten Touch, she melted off the bottom part of the hole to carve out a tunnel. Stark did the same, but with the use of an Iron Pickaxe instead of molten magic.

They made a hole big enough to crawl through and made their way inside.

Redstonia was once a proud city of engineering, but now reduced to corrupt hive, malformed for the sole purpose of making weapons of war.

“Okay, Stark, I’m going to cloak myself and trick the demons into attacking each other by hitting one of them.” Kate explained.

“Uhhh… as good of an idea that sounds, it’s not gonna work against corrupt forces. They’re all in sync.” Stark explained

“Sync?” Kate asked

“They’re all controlled by that same malevolent force. Vane explained this to me. They’d notice a mere human was in their midst if you did that.” Stark explained.

“Darn… I liked using that strategy. What do you suggest?” Kate pondered, looking at the Eldritch Assassin.

“Try to go for the neck. A common weak point among many beings, living or dead.” Stark explained.

He then chugged his invisibility potion, fading out of Kate’s sight.

Stark had his knife imbued with a blight charm, giving it a poisonous effect. He rounded the corner to see a Cultist Brawler marching his direction. He simply let him walk right past him before he drove his poisoned knife into the back of it’s neck, making it fall flat on it’s unholy face.

He eyed a staircase, being guarded by 10 feet tall skeleton, holding two large swords. He needed to scale the top and dispose of the ranged skeletons, to ensure the Order could reach the dome safely.

Using a poisoned crossbow bolt, he shot the skeleton right in the back of the head. It stumbled forward and growled, walking in Stark’s direction.

That gave Stark an opportunity to scale the wall while Kate, who was cloaked under her power’s influence, used Starlight to slash right at its leg. It stumbled on it’s hands and knees, but she stabbed it in the neck and destroyed it before it could rise back up. With no more immediate threats, She followed Stark up the stairs.

Stark was now on the walls that the Demons had built to fortify the place. Surely enough, the entirety of that wall’s top side had skeletons armed with bows and arrows.

Being invisible, it was a pretty straightforward Tactic.  He simply walked up to each skeleton, grabbed it by the chest, stabbed it in the neck, and threw off the wall so it would land outside the fortress, into the sea.

Kate made it to the top of the stairs, but her power was beginning to wear down, and there were still several skeletons in the distance.

With her power to cloak nearly gone, she simply pulled out her sword and said. “Oh, to hell with it.” She muttered as she charged forward.

She sliced the torso of a Corrupt Skeleton Archer clean in half before she turned visible again.

Seeing Kate reveal herself, the five remaining skeleton archers on her side of the Wall pointed their crossbows her direction. She ducked underneath a shot, and much to her dismay, she was facing against a volley of Unholy Arrows.

“Crap… I really don’t wanna get hit by that again…” Kate muttered.

She charged forward again, making sure to dodge any arrows. Being on top of a wall, she didn’t have a ton of room to do so.

She kept rolling and ducking under each shot as she approached the second skeleton and kicked it into the sea. Four Left.

Kate made it the third one without getting hit, but she wasn’t prepared for what happened next.

Rather that shooting her, the skeleton stabbed her with the crossbow bayonet, that Kate sadly did not noticed prior to having the sharp metal burrow into her chest.

She fell right on her back. Hard. Her chest was bleeding, but lucky for her, it was a minor flesh wound, and she would survive, with or without medical attention. Needless to say, it was painful.

Slowly standing up, clutching her wound, She slashed at the skeleton again, and barely dodged another stab from the bayonet.

A blast of fire tore the unholy skeleton to pieces. She flinched as an arrow flew a feet feet by her, but it was flying toward the skeleton, not away from it.

She turned around to see Stark had already finished off the skeletons on his side, and was now shooting at the ones Kate was trying to kill.

“Stark killed them all already? Wow. Well, he IS a professional Assassin, I guess it would make sense if he killed them faster than I could.” Kate said to herself.

Kate, Using Fire Magic, and Stark, using Poisoned Arrows, were able to kill the last three skeletons.

They surveyed the area for any more.

“Clear.” Stark said, looking around.

“I think That’s all of the Archers. Let’s let Magnus do his job.” Kate replied.

Stark lit the firework. It soared into the sky and exploded into a bright red light, clear enough for the Order to see.

“That’s the signal! Do you stuff, Magnus.” Jess said.

Vulcan pulled a pair of goggles over his eyes while he and Magnus got into position.

“If you have earplugs, you better put ‘em on now because YOLO BITCHES!!!” Vulcan yelled as he fired his ballista, hurling a TNT charge on the end of a giant crossbow bolt at the Dome.

Magnus pulled a switch, making Seven TNT charges soar into the sky.

“The Barge Ready?” Jesse asked.

Ellegaard nodded at him and said, “Alright, Everyone on. Let’s go!”

They climbed onto the wooden platforms beneath the redstone device.

One by one, they climbed aboard the massive barge. Vulcan and Magnus stayed at their weapons and kept shooting, blowing down pieces of the dome. Stark and Kate had taken cover.

Olivia was the last one to climb on the massive barge, as she started the machine up with her flint and steel.

The Barge sprang to life and began to push itself through the air towards the Dome. But Olivia had tripped as she came over to climb on. She quickly got up.

At that point, the barge was several feet away from the cliff face, so she took several steps backward to get a running start, and charged for the Barge. She took a great leap in an effort to reach the Barge, but it wasn't far enough.

Lucky for her, Petra grabbed Olivia’s hand before she could fall into the sea. She started to pull her up, and T.T. grabbed Olivia’s other hand to help her up.

Petra and T.T. pulled Olivia up, where she was now safely on top of the barge with her friends.

“Thanks.” Olivia huffed.

“Are you okay guys?” Emerald asked Soren and Nicolai

“I can’t keep balance on this thing…” Nicolai said, trying to balance.

“It helps if you sit down.” Ellegaard said. Nicolai and Soren did what she said.

“Okay. Sorry, just… never flown on anything before.” Nicolai said, sitting down.

“It is kinda hard to keep your balance on this odd device.” Alexsi added.

Yeah. not too used to flying either, but it doesn’t take much time.” Harper added.

The Barge had closed the distance between the cliff and the city. They looked down beneath the walls to see Kate and Stark fighting with a pack of skeletons armed with broadswords.

Gill, Maya, and Aiden jumped off and charged for the pack, running right by Stark and Kate to lend them a hand.

Harper, Olivia, and Lukas used their bows to try and thin down the small skeleton army that they were fighting.

The Barge was now parked against the edge of the dome, and the damage caused by Magnus and Vulcan opened an entry way for them. .

They began to run inside.

“Guys, We’ll need to get the ones outside the dome, then we’ll come in and fight on the inside.” Aiden yelled from below, dueling a skeleton army alongside Maya, Kate, Stark and Gill.

“Got it.” Soren said.

They headed inside. Ellegaard was very uneasy to see how horribly the place was wrapped.

The Ducts she once used to transport items were now being used to transport corruption. The entire place was dark, brooding and mostly likely crawling with monsters. She held a sad and grieved look on her face.

“You alright?” Petra asked her.

“The Things Oxidai did to my home. In less than a month…” Ellegaard said.

“It’s natural to be upset about-”

Before Jesse could finish, he was interrupted by Ellegaard. “It’s not sadness. It’s fear. If he can do THIS to a place on such short notice, God knows what he’s done in other worlds.”

“Ellegaard raises a morbid point.” Ivor added.

“Alright, This place has gotta be swarmed with Corrupters, right? Do you have a map, or some kind of layout?” Emerald asked.

“I remember the layout, but… No. No map.” Ellegaard said.

“Guys! How ‘bout you get up here, and Emerald and I can hold this point with the Wolves?” Kye called out to them.

“Alright, Help us get up there!” Maya called out from below.

Keyen threw his hook down to them so they would have a rope to climb. Kate was able to hover through the air with the use of her power, safely landing on the top with her friends.

Maya, Aiden and Gill climbed Keyen’s rope in that order to regroup.

Emerald and Kye Stared down at the crowd of corrupt monsters that was building up below them.

“Emerald…? You’re not gonna jump, are you?” T.T.

They seemed to ignore them.

“Get in that Dome. We’ll take care of this.” Kye said.

Emerald held an enchanted Diamond Blade in one hand and a Golden Apple in the other. She leaped downwards and landed right on top of a skeleton, shoving her blade into its spine.

Kye whistled loudly, and he, along with 15 angry wolves rushed in alongside Emerald.

They all headed in beyond the main gate, ready to fight a Necromancer and his Unholy army.

“Wow…” Lukas said, surveying his new surroundings.

“Okay, When we came here to rescue Petra, Jess and Olivia, Oxidai held them in the basement. Do you suppose he’d be down there?” Isa asked.

“The lower level seemed to be morphed into a labyrinth.” Nicolai added.

“Well, If we all rush him at once, we can beat Oxidai. We should all move at once and look for him.” Petra suggested.

“Alright. He took us down in the basement when we were captured, So maybe he’s working on some evil plan beneath us.” Jess reasoned.

“I Say we check the basement first, as unfond of them as I am.” Ivor said, raising his hand.

Everyone looked around, looking for an objection.

“The Motion Carries.” Alexsi said, heading towards the steps. Others began to follow.

Aiden and Gabriel held torches to illuminate their path. Walking down the stairs, Every inch of the dome was completely warped.

Everyone, especially Ellegaard, looked uneasy.

“Such Morbid Changes to take place…” Harper muttered aloud.

Sanya stopped when she stepped on something hard. It felt like steel.

Taking a closer look with light provided by Kate, it appeared to be a pipe. It ran upwards, into a ledge on the side of the stairwell.

“I Feel like I wanna check that out.” Axel said.

“I’ll take a look. Can you give me a boost, Big guy?” Petra asked.

Axel grabbed her ankles and hoisted her up. Petra grabbed the ledge with her hands and pulled herself to the top.

“Can somebody come with me? I really don’t wanna take two steps in this place alone.” Petra said.

“I doubt anyone does.” Soren added.

“Yeah, I can go with you Petra. We’ll check it out and head right back to you guys. If we see Oxidai, We’ll just run back and regroup with you.” Kate said.

Axel used the same Method with Petra. Lifting her by her shoes, She was up high enough to where Petra grabbed both her hands and pulled her up.

“Okay, Get back to us as soon as you can.” Jesse said. Kate and Petra nodded, and turned around to follow the pipe.

Petra went first, and Kate used her power to light up their surrounding area.

“You’re unsettled that the whole place was turned into a mecca of pure evil, right?” Petra asked Kate.

“Understatement of the century.” Kate added.

Petra froze as a Cultist Brawler nearly hit her square in the chest, striking from the shadows.

She slashed it right across the neck, making it fall backwards. Leaping in the air, she landed right on top of it, plunging her blade right into it’s chest, killing it.

“My heart skipped a beat when he just popped out like that.” Kate said, with wide eyes.

“Yeah… that could’ve gone worse.” Petra added.

They kept going until they found a valve.

“What do you think is in here?” Kate asked.

“I’d take a stab at Corruption.” Petra replied. “But… It could have some kind of power source. Water or some kind of Gas.”

“Maybe stab it open and find out?” Kate suggested.

Petra took a deep breath and drew her sword. It didn’t go so well when she was burned, as she tried to cut herself free from the corrupted vines and thickets that tried to hold her in place.

She thrusted her blade into the pipe, cutting all the way into the center of it.

No noise. Nothing sprayed out. Petra slowly drew it back, and both girls eyed the fluid now on the sword:

Blood.

“What?” Kate asked herself in disbelief. She looked over to the leaking pipe, now oozing blood.

“Oh God…” Kate muttered, shocked and scared, taking on step back, eyeing the growing blood pool next to the broken pipe.

“Ugh…” Petra graoned in disgust. “Well…. That explains what he did when he had me prisoner. He can use Blood as a power source.”

Kate didn’t say anything.

“Kate?” Petra asked.

Kate ignored her. Staring at the leaking pipe, she only stood in total shock. Enough people were hurt and killed to the point where Oxidai could build a system of pipes to use as a power source.

“He… My God, did he really…”

“Kate?” Petra asked again.

“All those people living here, and across the world… he would just…”

“Katelyn!” Petra shouted.

Hearing Petra shout her full name, she was faced with reality again.

“Kate, Listen to me. Standing in shock isn’t gonna help anything, so snap out of it and focus, alright? I find it pretty morbid that he’s killing people for that reason too, but, just... stay calm alright?”

Kate was silent, but she slowly nodded.

“... Okay. Thanks, Petra.” She said.

“It looks like a dead end, so let’s get back to everyone else. They might have found where that pipe goes, or comes from.”

Petra and Kate turned around the backtrack the area and regroup.


Meanwhile, on the outside of the Corrupt Fortress, The Walls and the top of the dome were completely torn apart.

“Magnus, I think we should go inside to regroup with the others. We can blow the place down on the inside, and the whole thing could collapse.” Vulcan suggested.

Magnus liked the idea.

“Alright, We can boat our way across, and then we’ll blow the place down after Oxidai’s done for.” Magnus said, as they both climbed down the face of the cliff and used a wooden boat to make their way to the broken walls.

Once to shore, the craters they carved were big enough to walk through. Looking to their left, They saw Kye and Emerald with their wolves up against a small army of Cultist Brawlers. Magnus drew his enchanted Iron sword and charged. Vulcan aimed his crossbow and stood where he was to provide cover fire.

“Magnus?” Emerald asked, glancing backwards.

“Let’s finish these guys off so we can get in there already!” Magnus shouted, as he charged forward and drove his blade into the chest of a Cultist Brawler.


Back within the basement of the Dome, The Group slowly marched along, surveying every inch of their surroundings. Some kind of monster, corrupt trap, or Oxidai himself could pop out at any second.

“Where do you think he is…?” Isa asked, in an uneasy tone.

“I want to find him, but at the same time, I don’t.” Lukas added.

“I Think I get what you mean by that.” Keyen said.

“Where’s Petra and Kate? We didn’t go that far ahead of them, did we?” Soren asked.

“Not too far… just down the stairs.” Gabriel added.

“Hold up. A lot of Corruption nearby.” Alexsi said, holding the Amulet. A bright purple glow filled the area.

“Any Idea where?” Haprer asked.

They kept walking down the stairs until they were met with a lake, no, a sea of corruption. There was a series of platforms acting as islands, with skeletons standing on some of them, armed with crossbows. The was a large Iron Door on the other side.

“Wait…” Nicolai said, surveying the room.

“What is it?” Rou asked.

“Haven’t we been here before?” The Azure Knight asked The New Order.

“I remember the sea of corruption with the islands, but… not in that layout.” Isa said.

“Oxidai must’ve rearranged them to throw us off.” Aiden said.

Ellegaard remained silent.

“You alright Ellie?” Jesse asked.

“Just been… getting to me, is all. My Home has been turned into a Demonic Fortress, Chock full of monsters and corrupt acid. No remnants of it’s former glory, and no hope to return it that way.” Ellegaard said.

“What are we gonna do with it after we beat Oxidai?” Asked Jess

“... It took me a year to build the Dome, and years longer to make the city. I Think we should just blow it up so it can’t be used for these terrible things.” Ellegaard said.

“Alright…” Olivia said.

“Oxidai could be behind that door…” Lukas said. He stepped forward towards the edge of the platform they were on.

“Mostly Skeleton Archers around here.” He said.

He fell flat on his back as an arrow hit him right in the chest. Jess gasped as she pulled him back with the help of Harper.

Alexsi pulled the Arrow out and applied a bandage to his wound.

“Don’t worry, Lukas, Just a Normal Arrow.” Jess said. Sure enough, Alexsi wiped the blood off the arrowhead. It was light grey, not glowing purple.

“Well, Not gonna hurt as bad, then.” Lukas said to himself as he sat up.

“Alright. Got any potions that will help here?” Soren asked.

“Ivor, how about a Stamina Potion?” Isa asked.

The Alchemist pulled out a glass bottle containing a light green liquid, and he handed it to Isa.

Isa drank it down and leaped unto the first platform, followed by Jesse and Keyen.

“Guys!” Kate called out from behind them

Petra and Kate descended the stairs behind them, regrouping with everyone.

“Lukas, you alright?” Petra asked, seeing the young adventure sitting on the floor, with a hand over his shoulder.

“Took and arrow to the shoulder, but Alexsi took care of it. I just need a minute.”

“Take Cover!” T.T. shouted.

Ten arrows rained down on the ground, sending them diving towards the stairs. Haprer and Maya were hit. Kate pulled the arrow out of Maya’s back and healed her, only using a fraction of her Elixir power.

Sanya pulled the arrow out of Harper’s back and applied a bandage.

“Hey! Any chance you could get those archers off us?!?” Jesse yelled from a distance.

They all looked over to see that the archers were shooting at Jesse, Keyen and Isa, while some of them were also focused on the larger group.

Rou, Stark, Harper and Sanya wasted no time with drawing their ranged weapons and firing poisoned or flaming arrows at the Skeleton archers on the balcony above them.

Kate threw trailing spheres of fire at the undead archers above her, igniting one of them as she hit it square in the face.

“We have Two Ender pearls. We can use them to get up there.” Ivor said.

“Shouldn’t we save one?” Asked Sanya

“Can't think of a better time to use them.” Petra reasoned.

“Alright, who should go up there?” Asked Kate

“I’ll handle those skeletons. You guys get across the platform and kill the archers.” Gabriel said. He grabbed the Ender Pearl and threw it. In a faint flash of light, he was teleported to the top, now on the same level with the undead archers.

Stark and Rou provided cover fire for Gabriel by shooting skeletons on his side of the upper floor.

Nicolai and Axel leaped unto the island platforms on the Corrupt Lake, beginning to make their way to the other side. Rou jumped over to the first one to try and shoot the undead from another angle with her bow.

Lukas stood up and drew back his bow to fire at the Undead. Him, along with his friends, were able to cut down the remainder of the skeleton archers.

Gabriel had taken arrow to the shoulder, but he was still able to fight. Slicing at each skeleton as he charged up to, as he was careful to dodge the shots fired at him.

The Skeletons on the platforms were being torn apart by Isa, Keyen and Jesse.

Isa was the furthest ahead and had killed the most of the skeletons. She jumped from platform to platform with ease, and butchered skeleton after skeleton with ease, as she could hack and slash duel swords for hours without pausing for breath.

More and More people began to make their way across the corrupted sea. But what they heard next made them froze.

“OW! G- … Son of a bitch, that burns!” Keyen shouted. He was sitting on the edge of a platform, holding both hands over his leg, burned as he had tripped into the corrupt acid.

“Crap! Keyen got burned!” Jesse said, about two platforms away. He hopped over towards him, hoping to be able to help him from getting hurt even worse.

Isa was preoccupied with fighting the remainder of the skeletons. Keyen was on his feet again, but he was bent over with his hands over his burning leg.

Jesse hopped over to where he was and handed him a glass bottle holding a pink regeneration potion.

Keyen grabbed the bottle from his hand and took off his helmet. “Thanks, Man.” He said as he chugged it down, and put his helmet back on.

He tried to walk, but Keyen ended up stumbling from his burnt leg. He nearly tripped, But Jesse caught him.

“Guys, Keyen can’t jump to get across!” Jesse shouted. Rou heard him and began leaping her way across the massive corruption pool below them, towards Jesse and Keyen.

Rou made it to their small island, where she used medicinal herbs to ease Keyen’s wound.

“You guys get in there, I can still fight.” Keyen told them.

“Right. Just go. I can watch him.” Jesse said to Rou.

Everyone was now either on the other side of the Corrupt lake, or nearly there.

“Duck!” Shouted Olivia.

Three Corrupt Spheres of Fire flew by Aiden and Rou as they tried to jump across. Corrupt Blazes had engaged.

Rou drew back an arrow and shot one square in the forehead. Another Arrow from Harper took it down.

Despite being unable to properly stand up, Keyen still had a few tricks left in the back pocket. He threw a flashbang directly at another Blaze, stunning two of them simultaneously.

Lukas, Sanya, Stark made short work of the Blazes with well-placed shots.

“Let’s keep going. We’ll be right back, hang in there, Keyen.” Jess told them.

They entered the large Iron door. Inside appeared to be a large amount of machinery.

“Wow… Olivia, what does this all do?” Gill asked.

“Looks like… some kind of Generator. It must be the Dome’s Core.” Olivia said.

“Oh, It Is! I build this directly under my workshop to power my Command Block build.” Ellegaard said.

“Let’s get some TNT here and blow it up, then.” Aiden said.

The gang emptied out all the TNT and explosives they had, but it wasn’t much, even with T.T. and Axel. Magnus had much more on him.

“Guys, We’ll have to come back to destroy the place. Magnus took most of the TNT.” Kate said.

“He didn’t use it all, did he?” Ivor asked.

“Let’s hope not.” T.T. added.

They all made their way back upstairs.

Meanwhile, Kye and Emerald had finished with the outside forces, and had regrouped with Magnus and Vulcan. Out of the fifteen wolves Emerald and Kye assembled, only three survived the fighting outside the dome. Kye and Emerald themselves had minor wounds.

Magnus and Kye held their swords out, while Vulcan held a crossbow, and Emerald held an enchanted bow.

“This doesn’t look like Ellie’s home at all anymore.” Said Magnus.

“Oxidai got rid of all her inventions, it would appear.”

The Road ahead was desolate. Normally, Redstone could be seen left and right, but now, it was nothing more than a dark, eerie hallway.

They advanced forward, passing by purple blinking lights, pipes, and ducts.

“Wow… Everyone had been corrupted so fast.” Kye said.

“Oxidai truly is terrifying.” Emerald added.

They scaled the stairway leading to Ellegaard’s main workshop, where she, with the help of Jess and Olivia, attempted to build a Command Block.

Skeletons blocked their path. Six, to be exact. Two held crossbows while the other four held swords.

Kye combat rolled to the left as arrow nearly hit him. Emerald Sniped the Skeleton archer with ease, the arrow’s power and fre enchantments being strong enough to take it down with one shot the skull.

Magnus dodged to the left as a swing from a Skeleton’s sword nearly cut him. As eager as he was to blow the unholy skeletons to bits, he wanted to conserve it to fight someone like Oxidai, or to destroy any trace of corruption.

Vulcan only needed two or three shots on each skeleton to kill it. Emerald switched from her bow to an enchanted diamond sword, thinking it would be faster and more effective. It didn’t take long for them and the wolves to tear up the six skeletons.

They took a left turn and found there to be a ladder leading upward. Sadly, Wolves are unable to climb ladders.

“Okay, just stay here, alright?” Emerald said to the wolves, patting their heads and feeding them bones.

They scaled the ladder and made it the Iron Door, with Ellegaard’s workshop on the other side.

4 Swine blocked the way, however, as they guarded the door. They were each armed with meat cleavers and wooden shields.

Vulcan’s crossbow bolts were blocked by the Wooden Shield of the first swine, but the Shield was eventually broken after several shots. Emerald took a slash at the Swine without a shield, wounding it, but was immediately hit back with the meat cleaver. She was protected by her armor, but still hurt by the cut. Magnus rammed one as hard as he could, square in the face, making it fall over. Kye leapt right on it’s chest and ran his sword all the way through it, killing it.

Two of the remaining swine ganged up on Vulcan. He smacked one of them with a crossbow, but the other tackled him to the ground. Magnus dived into action, grabbing the swine by the neck and tossing it across the room, away from the four of them.

An Arrow suddenly flew right by Emerald and hit the Swine in front of her. Turning around, Lukas had came. They were back from the basement, and more people were on their way.

Keyen came in and buried his Axe right in the skull of the Swine Lukas just shot. He yanked it back out, but then stumbled on his knee.

“Keyen! Wait! J- just don't push yourself.” Jess said, helping him standing up.

“It’s my own problem, just get the swine!” Keyen protested.

After scaling the ladder, Harper and Soren both shot at what was left of the defending force. As each member of either the Order(s), Blaze Rods, or Eldritch Warriors made it to the top, they immediately charged down the swine.

It didn’t take much longer for the lot of them to tear down the Swine.

Ellegaard looked up.

“Yeah... My Workshop...” Ellegaard muttered, staring at the door.

“I’ll bet any amount of Iron Oxidai is right behind this door.” Lukas said.

“We really need to talk about your gambling problem.” Petra said. Jess and Olivia giggled while Lukas  rolled his eyes.

“What?” T.T asked, confused

“Lukas and I always bet on things like this. And I usually end up winning.” Petra explained with a smug grin.

“I believe that is a gambling problem, by definition.” Rou added.

“So you don’t think Oxidai’s there?” Lukas asked.

“No, I believe you. I was just pointing out a problem.” Petra replied.

“Well, We’re all a bit banged up. Why don’t we heal first?” Stark suggested.

“Here Here.” Harper said.

They all sat down while Rou, Ivor, And Alexsi tended to their wounds. Kate used some of her power on Keyen’s leg.

“You gonna be alright?” Kate asked him.

“Relax Kid, We’re literally built for this kinda thing.”  Keyen replied.

“You guys were genetically modified soldiers created by humans, right?” Kye asked.

“Right.” Sanya answered

“Really?” Asked Soren in an interested tone.

“Correct. For instance, Eldritch skin is somewhat thicker. Not saying we’re better than you, but we’re given certain advantages.” Nicolai explained.

“Well, sure comes in handy for situations like this.” Emerald reasoned.

Wounds were tended by the work of Alexsi, Rou and Ivor. It didn’t take too long to get everyone back in fighting shape. Keyen struggled to walk, as his leg was still in slight pain.

Everyone stared at the door, not saying a word. Sanya put her hand on the handle to pull it open, and Gabriel did the same with the other side.

“Ready?” Stark asked. Everyone.

Some people nodded. No one dared utter a word.

The Doors creaked open, and everyone walked inside, weapons drawn.

“... Where is he?” Isa asked.

Everyone looked around the room. The Chests were empty, and the machine used when Ellegaard tried to build a command block was no longer there, as it was replaced with some form of odd, cylindrical shaped machine with a few purple blinking lights on it. The only light was provided by Kate whom had illuminated the room with a sphere of golden light, hovering on the ceiling.

“Where is he then?” Vulcan asked

Rou drew back an arrow with her bow, pointed at the ground, as she was the first to see some kind of corrupt creature rise from the shadows.

Rising in the air, it appeared to be a normal black sphere of some kind of amorphous gel.

The Eldritch Warriors had their weapons ready as tentacles grew out from the sides, but they noticed their human friends, simply staring in horror.

“Is that…” Ellegaard gasped.

“It can’t be!” Magnus protested.

“... It is! Oh Good God!” Kate shouted.

“You know what this is?” Keyen asked.

“This thing almost killed me in cyberspace after I found ellie… No way… No way! That was  Oxidai all along?!?” Magnus shouted.

“Oxidai tried to Kill us in cyberspace! This is unthinkable! He knew about us the entire time!” Soren said.

“Magnus? Magnus!” Stark shouted.

The Griefer was in too much sheer shock and horror to realize a gelatin spear was heading right for him, but lucky for him, Rou tackled him out of the way.

“We gotta kill this thing, fast!” Petra shouted.

“Is it the same one as before?” Lukas asked, panicked.

“Who Cares? Kill it!” Ivor shouted.

The Amorphous monster formed a grotesque set of sharp, black teeth and tried to bite Alexsi. He ducked underneath it, and Nicolai jumped on his back and stabbed it in mid-air.  It hovered away quickly, but stopped when Rou and Sanya nailed it with two arrows.

Kate threw some fire, making it fall to the ground. Keyen threw his hook to pull it forward and try to keep it in place. As it writhed furiously to escape Keyen’s grasp, Nicolai charged forward, jumped high in the air, and landed right on top of the monster, with his sword pointed downward.

“Begone, Foul Thing!” Nicolai barked.

The monster flew in the air, out of Nicolai’s reach.

Lukas, Vulcan, Harper, Rou, Sanya, Ellegaard, Stark, and Olivia all shot their bows at once, with only three out of the eight arrows missing. The Amorphous Alagam Flew Left and Right, Up and Down in an effort to get itself off Keyen’s hook.

Keyen was struggling to hold a grip on it, so Jesse ran over to help him secure it.

Kate threw a lightning bolt from her hand, electrocuting the monster it fell on the floor, where Petra and Jess each managed to get a hit off.

A rain of spikes flew down from the monster, hitting half the group, inflicting small wounds. Jesse was hit in his right arm, making him lose his grip.

Keyen fell on the ground as his hook was furiously ripped away. A spear like appendage was used by the monster to cut the rope dangling on the ground, with the hook buried into it’s gel.

It dashed forward and picked up Ivor, scooping him in the air and slamming him to the ground. The Alchemist struggled to get back up.

Flying around, dodging most arrows, the blob formed four sharp, black crystals, and spun them around in a circle in the air. They were fired at Harper, Isa, Gill, and Rou, who fell on the ground

“Guys!” Jess shouted, worried by their injuries.  

The Alagam Floating down to the ground and took the shape of a Human holding two swords, and began to duel with Isa.

Everyone was so panicked and reoccupied by the fighting that they didn’t realize more corruption creatures were sneaking up on them.

A skeleton smacked Lukas on the back of the head with a club, making him fall to his knees. Sanya cut it’s arm off with her machete, now given a sharpness enchantment.

Kate felt a sharp and hot pain on her back, and turned to see that spider had spit corrupt acid on her back. It burned like acid, and Kate was in moderate pain.

She yelped as the spider leapt right on top of her. Fear completely consumed her mind, as she desperately used both hands to pry the spider off. Luckily, Aiden came to her aid and stabbed it in the neck, causing it to fall to the floor, and off Kate.

T.T. Threw a TNT charge directly at the amorphous monster. Landing about 3 feet away from it, the impact and shock wave of the blast threw it back.

Isa charged with her two enchanted Iron Blades to try and stab it, but it flew in the Air beyond her reach, flew back down and slammed her right in the face.

She got up, momentarily holding a bloody nose, and threw the blade in her left hand, landing right in the center of the monster.

Just as Olivia drew back and arrow and aimed for the gelatin monster, but before she could fire, A Ghoul Smashed her right across the back, making her fall over.

Lukas, who was also just about to fire, turned to see Olivia on the ground face first, bleeding from her back. He hit the Ghoul right in the shoulder, making it growl in pain.

Stark threw his knife, landing his shot right on the Ghoul’s chest, making it stumble back even more, before it howled loudly.

Aiden took a slice towards the Ghoul, but only to have the beast dodge the attack. He thrusted forward and hit it right in the chest, falling on it’s back, the Ghoul was killed with another downward stab.

It took another round of arrows to bring the Amorphous alagam to the ground, where it was open to melee attack. Gabriel stabbed it as hard he se could straight for the center, inflicting massive damage.

Olivia got up close with a point blank shot from her bow, a moment before Sanya hit it with a Molotov, setting it on fire.

A Cultist Priest came in from the side of the room and shot it’s spine, nearly hitting Nicolai. He was able to move to the left in time before he could be hit.

“Where do the monsters keep coming from?” Jesse asked, loud enough to where it could almost be considered shouted.

“There must be a spawner around here somewhere!” Ivor shouted.

With the last finishing blow, Jess drilled her Diamond Blade into the alagam, where it then exploded, sending black ichor flying in all directions.

As everyone was preoccupied with killing the alagam, no one had noticed cylindrical shaped machine spawning the corrupted monsters. The Lights began to glow again, as something new was about to spawn.

“That’s all you, Big Guy!” Petra told Axel, pointing to the machine.

Magnus, T.T. and Axel readied some TNT charges to destroy the Machine, as they packed their charges on all sides of it.

Even as the odd mechanism was buried under TNT, they didn’t light it fast enough to stop it from spawning an Undead Bulwark, A Skeleton dressed in Iron Armor, holding an Iron Axe in one hand and a wooden shield in the other.

Gill used a downward strike to try and hit it, but he got blocked by the wooden shield. Seeing an opportunity, Kate threw a sphere of magic fire right at the shield. Surely enough, as she hoped, it caught on fire.

Maya leapt forward and stabbed the shield, hoping Kate’s fire and her attacks could break it.

Alexsi Threw a Blinding Gas Grenade, hitting at it’s knees. The Skeleton, Now Dazed and without a shield, was open for attack.

Nicolai cleaved the Skeleton Clean in half with his Luminite Blade, separating the skeleton’s waist and torso, as well as putting the unholy monster out of commission.

“Okay, We’re lighting the spawner up! Take Cover!” T.T. shouted.

The hissing of the burning fuse invited everyone to run and duck from the area, towards the door. Either running to a safe distance or ducking down and putting  their hands over their head, crouched down on the floor.

The Machine Exploded along with all the TNT charges, sending rubble flying in all directions, making a deafening explosions sound, and filling the room with dust and ash.

Everyone looked up to see the cloud of dust fading, and a massive hole in the wall. The machine was completely decimated.

“Alright… I Think we’re in the clear.” Emerald said, standing up.

“But where’s Oxidai? Is he still hiding?” Lukas asked.

“We’ve been in every room!” Ivor protested.

“Hey guys, check this out!” Lukas said from the right side of the room, looking at billboard.

Everyone saw what seemed to be some kind of Entry Log.

“What’s it say?” Gill asked.

“The Last Entry says something about working with Redstone Devices. That Spawner, I believe.” Lukas said.

“How does that tell us anything about his location?” Stark asked.

“This Entry is more than a week old, and it’s on the newest page… which means…

Oxidai’s long gone.” Lukas said.

“He just left? Just like that?” Jesse asked, bewildered.

“Why would he do that? Isn’t he hell-bent on stealing my power?” Kate asked.

“Well, he did something similar with us.” Nicolai pointed out.

“Care to elaborate?” Soren asked.

“We are out there in effort to stop him from spreading corruption too far, but… we usually ended up running away from him in certain fights. He had to run from us sometimes, too. About an even match.” Nicolai explained.

“So what does that mean?” Isa asked.

“He knows he can’t beat all of us head-on. He fled to the Eldritch world to prepare something, I’ll bet…” Sanya said.

“How does that explain the attacks?” Ellegaard asked.

“A Diversion. He doesn’t want us chasing him, so he made us think he was still here by having troops patrol the dome, and by occasionally having attack forces go for the town…

… The Bastard Baited us.” Vulcan told them.

“Damn… That was actually a good move on Oxidai’s part.” Keyen said.

“Necromancers are pretty smart.” Rou added.

“He may be an ass, but I’ll give him this: That plan was pretty boss.” T.T. said.

“I still despise Oxidai, but I have to admit, that’s a good play from him.” Kate said.

“While I’m still pissed off, A part of me is actually impressed.” Magnus added to what Kate and T.T. said.

“Still can’t believe that after we escape the dome, he was just toying with us the whole time.” Aiden muttered angrily.

“Yeah, like some kind of Sick War Games to keep us busy while he does something else.” Jess pointed out

“Damn! As much as I hate to admit, that’s good!” Gill said.

“Damn it all to Hell…” Stark muttered.

“What do we do now?” Harper asked.

“I say we blow the place to Kingdom Come.” Keyen said.

“As much as I hate to destroy the place, I have to agree with Keyen. We can’t give Oxidai a free fortress if he decides to come back here.” Emerald said.

“We can burn the place with Lava.” Axel suggested. “I brought a lot. Like, all a brought was a little food, a sword, and as much Lava as I could carry.”

“Do your stuff, Magnus.” Alexsi said.

Thanks to Jesse having a Diamond Pickaxe Handy, They Dug their way into the ceiling and out to the top of the dome, where Everyone got to work on placing TNT all across the bottom layers of the Dome. They didn’t have to stay within a dangerous range, as Sanya kept a single C4 charge handy. She could use the remote detonator to trigger the rest of the TNT after everyone was at a safe distance.

In the basement of the dome, Axel, with the help of half the group, flooded the place with lava, slowly burning away the corruption.

“Who knew Lava could burn Corruption?” Olivia asked.

“Of course! Lava is amazing!” Ivor shouted happily.

“You never get sick of it, do you Ivor?” Kate asked him. The Alchemist only shrugged.

TNT was placed at the foundation and support structure of the massive dome. T.T. and Magnus had brought prodigious amounts of it.

Plus, Vulcan had a good supply of gunpowder handy. Using some Sand from the beach, they were able to make even more.

Placed all along the rims and edges, The Detonation sequence was set. Everyone rode the massive barge back to where they had set up camp last night.

Sanya held the remote detonator in the palm of her hand

“Here.” She said, handing it to Ellegaard. “Your dome. You pull the plug when you’re ready.”

Ellegaard hovered her thumb over the small button.

“You okay, Ellie?” Magnus asked.

She took a deep breath and said. “Well, there’s nothing else left to be done with the place.


Goodbye, Redstonia.”

She pushed the button.

The Explosion set pieces of rubble, stone and glass thousands of feet in the air. Purple plumes of dust rose as debris flew and scattered into the ocean.

Everyone just staring at the pieces of metal and rock flying and splashing into the tainted sea.

“Hey… We Won.” Gill pointed out.

Everyone looked at him. Alexsi pulled out the amulet. Even the water below began to turn to it’s normal state with Oxidai’s fortress gone.

“Hey, We did!” Jess said cheerful.

“Yay… We… Sort of won. Corruptions gone from this world, but Oxidai baited us into the whole thing.” Petra said.

“We killed a crapton of demons and made a strong alliance. Let’s put it in the ‘Win’ column and move on.” Vulcan said.

“Agreed.” Isa added.

“I agree. Corruption’s terrible influence is driven from your world, but the fighting is far from over.” Nicolai said.

“Well, We can rest Easy, for the most part. Nethra’s death, luckily, was not in vain.” Harper pointed out.

“Let’s go home, and we can celebrate this properly. Not sure if it deserves one, seeing as Oxidai played us, but we kicked Corruption’s ass in this place, so what the hell. I’ll make a Cake.” Gill said.

With that, everyone followed him back home.

Corruption was purged from Three Worlds, but there was still a threat standing within the Eldritch Domain.