Sean Wolfe - The Complete Elementia Chronicles - Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message

“Well, we’re kind of on a mission right now, and there are certain people we’d like to avoid,” said Stan, presently wary about giving away too much information to this stranger, even if he had just saved their lives. “What about you? I assume you live out here, Mr King of the Desert, and you don’t even have armour!”

“Excellent point, my young friend,” said DZ, leaning against the sandstone at the bottom of the sinkhole wall. “Well, the reason I live out here by myself is that I have found it to be a very pleasant life, detaching myself from the insanity of the modern world. I used to be very successful back in my day – you’ll forgive me for bragging – but I have found that it is quite nice to live alone out here, beating the living crap out of the night folks, and occasionally getting to ward off the nomads. As for the no armour, eh, it’s an old habit from my days playing Spleef.”

“What exactly is Spleef?” asked Stan. He had wondered about this a few times before, but he hadn’t had a chance to ask yet.

“Sheesh!” cried DZ, taking them all by surprise. “You people’ve never heard of Spleef? What levels are ya?”

“Why does it matter?” asked Stan defensively. He would not tolerate any more of this bias against lower-levels.

“Oh, I’m not prejudiced, don’t worry!” DZ laughed. “No, no, prejudice against the lower-levels was the reason I left Element City. I was just wondering because if you’d been on here for long, you’d have heard of Spleef.”

“Oh, well in that case, we’re all in the thirties,” replied Stan, which was true, what with all the monsters and animals they’d killed around the Nether and the Overworld. Kat, Charlie and Stan were now levels thirty-four, thirty-three, and thirty-one, respectively. Indeed, it occurred to Stan as he said this that the three of them wouldn’t even be considered lower-level players any more. Then he realized that DZ had also said something else. “Wait,” said Stan, “why’d you leave Element City again?”

“Because I hate the King,” replied DZ offhandedly. “Anyway, Spleef is a game where any number of people … well in the league rules the official numbers are—”

“Hold up,” interjected Kat. “Why do you hate the King so much?”

“Because he backstabbed a bunch of his friends because he’s a paranoid jerkface. Anyway, in league Spleef two teams of three players each go into an—”

“And so you hate the King? You’d like to see him overthrown?”

“Well, yeah, if anyone had the guts to organize a rebellion, I’d join. So you’ve got these two teams in the arena, and they destroy the floor, which is made of snow, and try to knock the guys on the other team through the gaps—”

“We’re doing that! We’re organizing a rebellion against the King right now!” Charlie exclaimed.

“And the last team with a player standing is … wait, what?” DZ started to pay attention to them for the first time. He lowered his shades and looked down at them. “Hold up … from what I know, nobody allied with the King would even joke about overthrowing him … you’re serious?”

Stan looked at Kat, and she looked at Charlie, and he looked back at Stan, and he knew they were all thinking the same thing. “Yes, we’re serious!” Stan said. “If you want, you can join us. We’re raising an army right now to try to overthrow the King. As soon as we get supplies, which we’re on a journey to find right now, we’re going to hook up with some players back in the Adorian Village and we’re going to storm Element Castle!”

“So … hold up …” DZ sat down, trying to take in the enormity of what Stan was saying. “So you already have an army … and supplies? But how are you going to infiltrate the castle? Even assuming your army could stand a chance against the King’s, isn’t Element Castle rigged with those … automatic … uh … redstone booby trap, er, thingies, that are meant to stop invading armies?”

Kat’s and Charlie’s faces fell, realizing that they had overlooked that particular part of their plan, but Stan reached into his inventory and pulled out the book that the Mechanist had given him. “I got this book from the guy who designed all those redstone traps for the King, and it tells what and where they are. We can use this to anticipate and avoid these traps.”

Stan’s friends, as well as DZ, looked at him, and he briefly explained about his detour to Blackstone and his meeting with the mayor and the Mechanist. Kat and Charlie were elated to hear that twenty-two new fighters were now heading towards the Adorian Village to help the war effort. DZ, meanwhile, took to their plan with enthusiasm.

“Well, if you guys have an army and are going to overthrow the King, then I want in! The sooner that jerkface comes down, the better. What can I do to help?” His face was split into a smile of determination. This was the most earnestly positive reception of their plan Stan had seen yet.

“Well, you can make your way back to the Ado—” started Stan, but he was cut off by Kat pulling him backwards. “What are you doing?” he asked as he was pulled into a huddle with Charlie.

“OK, guys, look. We have to kill, like, twelve Endermen if we’re going to get into the End, and who knows what we’ll find when we get there? They must have called it the End for a reason,” Kat said.

“Where are you going with this?” Stan asked.

“Well, how about instead of telling DZ to go back to the village with the others, we ask him to come with us? He seems to know what he’s doing,” Kat said.

“That’s a great idea, Kat!” exclaimed Charlie. “He seems to have a way with those swords.”

“Hold up, wait a second,” said Stan. “Are you sure we want to ask this guy we just met to come with us?” Stan, truthfully, had been a little put off by DZ’s reaction – it had seemed a tad too sincere for him.

“Well, why not? It’s worked so far, you know, with the Apothecary, the Nether Boys and these people in this Blackstone you told us about,” Kat replied.

“Yeah, and with the Apothecary you were yelling at me for pushing our luck, and now you want to push it some more? Can we say hypocritical?”

“Oh, come on, Stan!” sighed Kat in exasperation. “I have a good feeling about this guy. Just trust me on this one.”

“Are you sure that it’s not just because you think he’s cute?” sneered Stan, and he regretted it an instant later.

Kat let out a hiss of rage as she flew at Stan and punched him squarely in the stomach. Both of them flew backwards. Stan had the wind knocked out of him by the power of Kat’s fist, and Kat, in her anger, had forgotten that Stan was still wearing his iron chestplate. They were both on their feet again in seconds and were about to have another go at each other when something stopped them. Charlie’s hand shoved Kat back down, while his foot did the same to Stan.

“Enough, both of you!” yelled Charlie. “You’re acting like five-year-olds. Cut it out! Those are the people we’re trying to get rid of, remember?” He turned to Kat. “Kat, there is nothing wrong with being cautious, so don’t just completely blow him off.” He whipped around to face Stan. “Stan, that was just uncalled for, and besides, if he wanted us dead, he could’ve just let us be mauled to death by those zombies, OK?” He stepped back so he could talk to both of them at once. “I say that we invite DZ to come along with us, but we keep an eye on him until we’re one hundred per cent sure that he’s trustworthy, OK?”

Stan and Kat were silent for a moment. Then, they both nodded. They did not, however, look each other in the eye.

Charlie walked over to DZ, who had remained oblivious to the fighting and was now absentmindedly chiselling “Die King Kev Die” in the sandstone wall with his diamond sword. “DZ?” The warrior turned towards Charlie, sheathed his sword, and looked Charlie in the eye.