Confronting the Dragon by Mark Cheverton

Author:Mark Cheverton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Published: 2013-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

EREBUS

Erebus materialized near the foot of the craggy mountain. As the mist of purple teleportation particles cleared, he looked up at the stony peak. The narrow rocky spire stretched up high into the air, the neighboring peaks reaching up just as high in the background. They looked to Erebus like the clawed fingers on some kind of hand that had pierced up through the ground, the fingers bent and distorted as if in terrible pain.

They made him smile.

Looking about the landscape, he could see the large tunnel opening at the foot of one of the peaks. Sick, leafless trees dotted the area, their bald limbs stretching out in hopeless despair. At first, these contorted trees made him uneasy, but now he was starting to appreciate their anguished beauty. Off to the right, the King of the Endermen could see some trees with their leaves still attached. But as he watched, he saw the leaves on one start to wither and die on the brown braches, the leafy canopy slowly turning from a lush green to a sickly grey, then crumbling to ash. It made him smile.

As he walked toward the tunnel opening, Erebus saw one of the shadow-crafters approaching from the direction of the now dead tree. It was the one that never seemed to speak . . . just watched; the one with the bright glowing eyes. Zombiebrine had never told them this crafter’s name, but seemed to silently defer to him as if he were the one really in charge . . . curious.

Erebus nodded to the shadow-crafter as he approached the tunnel opening. He noticed for the first time that this crafter lacked the typical bulbous nose and unibrow that he’d come to expect from the NPCs and shadow-crafters of Minecraft. In fact, this creature looked more like a user than an NPC. Glancing above his head, Erebus saw no letters floating above his dark hair, nor the server thread of a user. He was definitely part of this server, like Erebus and every monster and NPC, but he was something different . . . more than what appeared.

Interesting.

The shadow-crafter disappeared into the tunnel entrance. Erebus started to follow but stopped as the tunnel grew bright. Something aflame was approaching. Stopping in his tracks, Erebus waited as a stream of blazes emerged from the entrance followed by a group of wither-skeletons, their dark ashen bones lit with an orange-ish hue from the internal glow of the blazes. Following the dark skeletons was Malacoda himself. The King of the Nether floated high up into the air as soon as he cleared the tunnel entrance. A look of nervous unease seemed to leave his wrinkled brow as soon as he was high enough off the ground to be out of reach.

Following Malacoda came Zombiebrine and a few other shadow-crafters. Erebus could see the one with the glowing eyes standing back in the shadows of the tunnel, close enough to hear, but not close enough to be seen . .

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