Into The Game [FINISHED]

23 ✣ Fortress of the Architecht

We had gotten up early and headed out, prepared to find Soren's fortress. Reuben squealed happily and ran around. Magnus yawned and stretched his arms.

"Nothin' like a good nights rest to do the body right, I am ready to do some blastin' today!" Magnus exclaimed and Petra let out a small laugh.

"I wish I could have the energy you have, I'm still a little under the weather" Petra said. I then noticed that her skin was a pale color. A growl and a large shadow over the group made us turn around. It was the Wither Storm!

"Uh... guys?" Lukas muttered quietly.

"Aw crap! I told you it was going to catch up with us!" Magnus exclaimed.

"Oh my... you really weren't kidding" Ellegaard gaped and stood frozen at the sight of the storm.

"No... not again..." Petra muttered under her breath. The Wither Storm blocked out the sun, allowing all the monsters to come out from hiding.

"We can hash all that out later because we've got some monsters to fight here people!" I exclaimed. I drew my sword and three zombies approached me. I killed them all in about two hits. "Come on we gotta get out of here!" I called to everyone who were now in a group, running together. Axel panted heavily and Petra was mumbling things under her breath.

"I am getting very tired of this Wither Storm!" Olivia exclaimed.

"Agreed!" Ellegaard responded and we all dashed away.

✣

We climbed up the mountain. We had arrived at Soren's fortress. Two giant golden doors that stood before us opened on their own. We walked inside. The room was huge, filled with hundreds of lapis and nether quartz blocks.

"Soren really lived down here? So far from... anyone?" Lukas inquired.

"Enchanting, isn't it?" Ellegaard asked. Petra broke into a fit of coughing and then gripped her arm which was covered with fabric. We climbed some stairs and saw a sea of columns.

"I am not feeling those columns" Lukas looked at the unstable looking columns.

"Oh come on! It's fine! Look!" Magnus exclaimed, he had jumped onto the closest column and Axel followed.

"Just try not to fall, okay?" I told Reuben and broke into a run, landing on a column. I jumped from one to the other until I saw Reuben who was struggling to stay on a column. The ground rumbled. I dashed over to Reuben and pulled him up. We then jumped to the other side. Lukas stood in wait.

"Jesse, you okay? That was crazy!" Lukas exclaimed.

"I'm more curious why the ground kept moving, so weird" I then turned around and looked down. Enderman were everywhere below the columns.

"There are so many, I didn't know they came in groups that big" I gaped.

"No kidding, it's like an Enderman party," Lukas looked over at me "Come on, we should get out of here, Olivia and the others already went ahead." We walked forward and I saw a large pond that we had to swim across.

"Oh be quiet! It's just a pointless building! Thats all I'm saying!" Magnus shouted, his voice filled with rage as it echoed through the fortress.

"Magnus, if an artist painted a picture of the inside of your head-" Ellegaard replied angrily, I didn't listen to the rest of their argument until I got out of the water.

"Thats it! I'm going!" Ellegaard stormed away into a hall.

"No! No! No! You do not get to be the one who walks away! See! I'm walking away too now! Super TNT, here I come!" Magnus walked into a different hall.

"It's hard to pick glass half-full when they keep kicking the glass over" Olivia said.

"And I thought they were doing so well..." Lukas muttered.

"We'll just have to find the Super TNT without them" I sighed.

"What are we gonna do now? Where should we go?" Olivia questioned.

"Let's figure it out" I told her and looked over at Petra, Reuben sat next to her Petra didn't look so good and I was glad that Lukas was having a good time, a gleeful smile was spread across his face as he looked at the four statues in the room. Olivia looked around, her hand was on her chin, she was thinking of a plan, as usual. I then decided I would go down the hall Ellegaard went down. Petra got up and went up over to me and touched my shoulder. "Petra, you okay?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to worry you, I just have something I need to discus with you in private" She whispered. Lukas, Olivia, and Axel went down the other hall as me and Petra walked down Ellegaard's side. "I feel bad about ditching everyone else, but I just wanted to talk to you about this alone," she sighed and stopped "It's a little tough to talk about."

"Hey, whatever it is, I trust you, you can tell me" I said.

"Thanks for being so understanding"
she smiled. "You got me away from the Wither Storm... but I'm worried I didn't get away soon enough" Petra pulled down the fabric on her arm, a large portion of her arm was a pinkish-purple color. "It showed up not too long after you saved me."

"What is that? What's wrong with your arm?" I inquired.

"Do you know what Wither is?" Petra asked.

"Of course! We've been-"

"No, just Wither, or Wither Sickness, I guess," Petra said "And I feel like it's just gonna keep getting worse.

"Well, we're going to go back and tell the others, we can get help" I told her.

"You can't tell anyone about this" She said firmly. A creeper then approached us and we gasped, it blew a hole into the ground and I almost fell through, I hung on to the sides of the hole and grabbed Petra's arm but I fell.

"Jesse, I just couldn't... I'm sorry, are you okay?" Petra looked through the hole, I was in another hall that was lit up by the amulet.

"Don't worry, I'm fine" I told her.

"Okay, stay safe, I'll find a way down to you" Petra and Reuben walked away, I turned my head to see the amulet on the ground, glowing a dark blue. I picked it up and walked in the direction the light glowed brighter, I entered a huge study and saw that a large door was open. I walked into the room. There was someone in here.

"He must have something useful in here, he has to! Why would he have so many books?" the shadowy figure questioned, looking through the many books in the room. "Is he just collecting them? He couldn't have read all these" he turned around and gasped "You..." It was Ivor.