"Woooow!" Izzy swooned over the exotic interior of the gallery. "This is beautiful!" She drifted to the towering columns that had paintings of many things on them. All around the walls were paintings. Paintings of a flaming skull, scenery, skeletons and pigs, and even the classic Donkey Kong hung all around them. As with every room, vines hung from the ceiling, touching down to the floor.
"Okay, now I'm starting to think that you went a little too extreme with this." Ami said, giving Michael a look.
"You're probably right," he shrugged. "But what can I say? I'm a bit of a show off."
"No kidding." Charlotte laughed, cranking her neck to look up at the ceiling. Evidently, there was nothing there, but she resided to gazing at some of the higher placed artwork. "Where did you get these paintings?"
"Who knows? I just made a frame one day, put it on the wall, and you'd bet I was surprised when a full scale Van Gogh made itself appear inside. I think it's all luck depending on what you get, though. It's usually randomized."
"There's a lot about this world that we don't really know, isn't there?" Luke grazed his hand on one of the giant paintings.
"Just you wait." Michael scratched his neck. "I can show you a lot of things."
"Oh?"
"I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death."
"I - uh, what?" Luke blinked, trying to comprehend what Michael had said.
"Don't worry about it, it's a reference to something you probably wouldn't understand. However, there are health potions and the such. But nothing exists to bring someone back from the dead."
"So you're telling me that there's potions in this world."
"And enchantments. Don't even get me started on redstone circuits."
"I think you'll have to give us all a lesson on this. I didn't understand half o' the mumbo jumbo you just said." Charlotte tore her gaze from the paintings and smirked playfully at Michael.
"Should be easy enough, I'd reckon. You're all above-average intelligence, after all." He grinned.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Charlotte stepped forward, a smile stretching across her face.
"Simply that I, dear lady, possess more smarts on this subject, than you." Michael stepped back.
"But ya ain't much of a fighter, right?"
"You're a wise one. I tend to avoid it at all costs if I'm able."
"And if you're not?" They had started to circle around each other, both grinning and on the verge of laughing.
Michael took a bow. "Then, I flee." At that moment, he burst out of the door in a mad dash, chuckling to himself as he sped away.
"I see how it is," Charlotte briefly cracked her neck, and took off after him. The overall abruptness of this scene left the rest of the group to stand there and be bewildered.
"When you said flee, I didn't think you'd be that fast."
"I didn't think you were that slow, either. Sorry about your knee." Michael sat beside Charlotte next to the boiling pit of lava. They had had a joyous time of running and yelling after each other, until Charlotte ended up tripping on a vine and almost falling off the house. After a few moments of panic, Michael had helped her back on to stable ground.
"What, this? I've been through worse. It'll heal in no time. I'm more surprised about how sturdy those vines o' yours are."
"So am I. I suppose that leaving those to grow and run wild ended up being a greater idea than I thought."
"Liar. You haven't been here in ages. You wouldn't have planned such a thing, even if you were mad."
"You think I'm sane?" He expressed a short guffaw. "And what do you think of yourself, then?" Charlotte suddenly went silent, her smile fading into emptiness. She stared down at the lava, avoiding Michael's eyes.
"You'd laugh." she said.
"What? No, I wouldn't. Unless you were to say something amusing, that is. If - If you were going to say something serious, I wouldn't just up and laugh at you. You can tell me."
"I don't really mean to be a downer, honest. I just, ya know, don't often think highly of myself. There are others who think lower. Because of my accent, my sense of humour, my skin..." She wrapped her arms around her knees gingerly. Michael was quiet for a while, struggling to find the words.
"I don't see how those could make you any less of a person," he said. "I mean, look at us. We get along. A lot of the people here look to you as a leader - even Aiden. I can see it sometimes."
"What does that change? So they see me as a leader. It doesn't change what I see."
"Char-"
"Don't. It's just something I have to deal with. Besides, remember when we first met? You couldn't stand to look at me."
"But I let you stay. I know I came off as a jerk, but..." He bit his lip. Charlotte sighed. "I know we're good friends now. I know ya wouldn't think twice if it came to saving any of our lives. You're a good guy, Michael. I don't doubt that. I just doubt myself. But like I said, it's something I deal with. I'm fine, trust me." She stood up, wobbled a little, and headed towards the trapdoor.
"I wouldn't go down there if I were you," he said, jumping up after her. "Your knee is still a bit out of sorts." She continued on her way. "Then come help me down."
Michael sighed and smiled. "As you wish."
"Th-The what?!" Aiden stammered, sweating.
"The Nether. I wanted to put this trip off for longer, but..." He shook his head. "We have to do it now. I know we have obsidian in the chest. Plenty to make a portal. We have a flint and steel, and excellent armour and weapons. If we want to get on with defeating the Ender Dragon, we'll have to go to the Nether and defeat an enemy to get an item called a blaze rod. If we get at least six rods...we can make blaze powder, and combine that with a bunch of Ender Pearls, and then head towards The End."
"English, please." Luke mumbled. Michael sighed.
"We're going to hell to kill demons, pick up their remains, and use it to make an object. Then we throw that object around until it leads us to a magical portal. Then we battle the boss."
"Oh," he suddenly went quiet. "Okay."
Michael walked across the room, his feet clicking against the floor. He opened a chest and dug through it, pulling out ebony blocks that held a slight tint of purple within them.
"Let's go," he said.
Everyone watched in awe as Michael built the portal. He laid out the obsidian in a 4x5 pattern, taking deliberate care where he placed them. They were outside, the sun was starting to set, but it seemed that Michael chose to ignore that warning sign. He stepped back and admired his work, a hollow box.
"Is that it?" Aiden blinked.
"Watch," Michael said, pulling out the flint and steel and lighting a fire on the obsidian. Aiden made a noise as if he was going to retort with something obnoxious, but found that his mouth hung open instead. As the fire burned on the obsidian, it disappeared as quickly as it had came, and a deep, violet vortex had appeared inside the box of obsidian.
The vortex appeared to bubble, small bits and bobs dissipating into the air. But what made everyone uncomfortable with this portal wasn't the ominous appearance of the vortex, but the sounds it made. What sounded like a low bubbling noise, like boiling a pot of water, mixed with a hushed scream to add to the already present tension.
"What is that?" Ami spoke first.
"Quite literally the gateway to hell," Michael said, staring at the portal blankly. "And that's where we're headed. I'll do a quick check of inventory. How much cobblestone?"
"Well over a hundred," Aiden said.
"Food?"
"Plenty enough fer a week," Charlotte answered.
"Weapons?"
"We all have diamond weapons, and armour." Izzy adjusted her helmet as she spoke.
"Okay. Ready? Set...go." He stepped into the portal, soon vanishing into thin air. After he vanished, there was nothing. No one stepped up to go next, no one dared to breathe.
"My turn," Ami's voice quivered as she shakily stepped into the portal. Waves of purple cast themselves across her vision, and before she knew it, the portal had sucked her in.
For a moment, everything was black. There was nothing. No sound, no wind against her face, nada. Ami felt weightless, as if she could float among the emptiness forever. But soon the purple waves smeared themselves across her eyes once more, and a force pulled her aggressively to her feet. Ami wavered in her steps, wobbling as she emerged from the portal again.
"Wait, stop!" Michael yelled from somewhere. Ami couldn't process anything. Her vision was only there in spots, most of it taken up by the waves.
"Don't take another step! Ami, STOP!" She saw a hand reach out for her, making a grabbing motion, but somehow she felt herself slipping away from it. That's when the dread seeped into her body, shocking her brain into granting her full vision at that moment. Michael was on a platform in the air, screaming and reaching out for her. And Ami was falling through the air like a weight.
(Suspense. Such suspense. Much cliffhanger.)
ns 15.158.61.51da2
