Chapter 119: It hates fire!

A creature whose black morphology would be at home in any H.P Lovecraft novels; a monstrosity lies before us. I don’t know what mod birthed such a monster, but it is what I feared. End mods had a tendency to be more ethereal and dangerous. Containing a variety of mob’s I wouldn’t know head or tail off.

This must be one such creature. Origens unclear, the writhing mass of black tentacles begins to move towards the crew. I look at the monster, spotting a beady red eye peer through the tentacles occasionally; as the oily black skin rolls towards us.

I hear a loud shout, “get ready for battle!” The captain simply says.

Demni immediately retreats while Dio, Dan, and the captain circle it. Kiran steps back a little, grabbing a bow from his bag. Glowing arrows in the quiver along his spine, he means business. The 3 main combatants quickly draw swords, body armor already on their bodies.

The captain turns to me, “Aeternum, do you know what creature this is?”

“No, sorry.”

He then shouts, “Unknown life form; expect the unexpected and act cautiously!” He makes a hand gesture in the air.

The soldiers spread out into a wide formation; while Kiran knocks a red arrow. He fires the weapon towards the foot of the beast, striking the ground with a loud explosion. A napalm-like substance is released in front of the beast, igniting into tall flames. An ear-piercing screech is released as the black mass touches the red fire. Recoiling back quickly.

The captain shouts once more. “Fire weakness identified, use fire runes.”

With that, they all slot a red stone into the hilt of their swords. The metal of the blade glowing a luminescent orange as the blades burst into fire. They slowly circle the beast, swinging into the air to push it towards an obsidian pillar.

The creature suddenly deviates from its path, avoiding the pillar.

“Creature has been identified to have medium intelligence.” The captain’s voice rings out.

They begin to circle it instead of pushing it towards a pillar. The creature starts lashing out in panic. Some tentacles eventually reached the soldiers. Being swatted away by swords, to which the beast pulls the tentacles back. It suddenly lashes out at Dio, who loses formation by stepping back.

Realizing what he had done, he rushes to step forward. But the creature had already moved in his direction, putting pressure on Dio. As the tentacles target him, the captain rushes in. Slicing the largest, revealing a grizzle cross-section. It screams once more in pain, pulling away.

With it injured, they slowly started whittling away at it. Whenever it lashed out, a tentacle was cut. Whenever it moved, its main body was sliced. It began to bleed blue slime along with the many cuts. It began to shrink slightly as more and more mass was lost.

Once it had shrunk sufficiently, Kiran approaches. A glass vile with a flaming cloth attached. He tosses the concoction at the beast, igniting it. The beast thrashes around, limbs flail wildly in the hopes of dousing the sticky flames.

Its screams turn to wails, and its wails turn to whispers.

When all is said and done, all that remained was a burnt husk. Slowly crumbling into grey dusk onto the ground. The guards approach It slowly, striking it with their swords just in case. Moments later, the ash floats away. Leaving behind a single item; a black gem.

The captain takes out some glowing gloves, picking the gem up with them, and placing it inside a runed box.

Once the box is safely away, he addresses his staff. “Nice round of combat. Kiran, you are as accurate as ever. Dan, nice one on fixing that left focus of yours. Dio, you can't be losing formation at a wild limb. We have health potions; get it sorted.”

He nods, “Yes, sir.”

Focusing his attention on us non-combatants, he speaks. “Any idea about what that was? And how to better kill it?”

I speak first, “It seemed to have otherworldly origins, perhaps a creature of the abyss?”

He nods, demni speaks. “Its skin was black and sensitive to heat; it likely naturally exists in dark places. I think water and earth would be ineffective. Focus on using Air and Fire runes. Aside from that? It appears to have bad eyesight; long-range weapons will likely be very effective.” He said this like a true scientist.

The captain nods to us. “thank you.” Looking around, “Well, this map ain't gonna finish itself; get moving.”

And with that, we finished the map without incident. I sneaked a few looks at the occasional enderman. From what I could gather, they seem to be avoiding us.

They seem very intelligent, something I will have to look into later.

We take a short break in the small room we prepared. We take the time to add as much detail to the map as we can. It was a rushed job. We took the downtime as an opportunity to add things we otherwise couldn’t.

With our mission complete, we leave through the portal. A small group of guards our now stationed on the other side of the portal. I would like to say, “ever vigilant.” But they were playing cards when we came through. It gave me a little bit of a laugh.

Taking our seats in the minecart, we are then off. Using my now patented method of cushioning the seat. The other members having rolled spare clothes up for cushioning.

Arriving at the Dagger estate, we are welcomed by Tilda, the matriarch.

“Hello, I hope your mission went well.” She says in her personal melody.

“Yes, we completed our mission as required, madam.” The captain says.

“Good, good, we will see you in debrief.”

He nods, “Yes.”

She turns to the rest of us. “You all must be tired; we will give you each a room to rest.”

Which got mild cheering from Dio and Dan. We are guided to our own personal rooms by a maid each.

“Sir, if you require anything at all, ring this bell. I will help you to the best of my ability.” She then curtsey’s towards me before leaving.

I sit on the gigantic bed, noting the softness of the sheets – silk. Truly, luxurious; I feel spoilt. Well, I never say no to being spoiled; bring it on.

I take a moment to send mail to Jengal, Cassie, and Average, informing them I am back. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t send them mail implying I could be gone 3 days. I was gone less than one, so I informed them.

Lying back on the bed, I nibble on some chocolate while relaxing. I don’t know when it happened, but I fell asleep.

Meanwhile, in the debriefing:

“Begin your report.”

“Yes, Madam. We entered the End portal on time. The end was as described in the letter; see my report for further descriptions. It was populated by enderman, with some small minority, other creatures; further details later in the report. Upon entering, Aeternums advised us to build a temporary shelter. We built it under the closet obsidian pillar to the portal. Having created a safe space, we began excavating the local area for geological samples; further details in the written report. Nothing eventful happened during this time; we remained relatively safe. After obtaining the samples, we began creating a basic map of the terrain. This task was completed; during the middle of the task, we had contact with an unidentified creature. Using basic combat tactics, we discovered a fire weakness and an estimate of a 5 years old intelligence. It was dispatched without issue.”

He then presents the runic box to the matriarch. “This was the drop, secured in an isolation box.”

The Matriarch takes the box and places it into a draw. “You mentioned in your report that 2 ends exist.” She enquiries.

“As detailed by Aeternum, a second portal exists within the end. A small floating bedrock object with a portal in the middle. Aeternum clarified that the main island was what we were on. He told us through that portal lies are far more dangerous and expansive place.”

“Did he go into further detail?” Head tilted as she flips through the written report.

“He simply stated that it is inhabited by dangerous creatures, and some form of man-made structures exist within.”

“Interesting.”

“May I speak out of term, Madam?”

“You may.” She says with a nod.

“Where did you find Aeternum? He displayed startling amounts of information about the end. Information; that as far as we are aware shouldn’t exist.” The captain says in confusion.

“We did not find him; he found us.” She says with a wide smile. “It seems the end isn’t as unexplored as we first thought.”

“How could they enter; we have the only portal?”

“How do we know it’s the only portal?”

This question stumps the captain. “I don’t know.”

“Neither do we. Thank you for your report. You are dismissed.”

The captain leaves the room without a word. Deep in thought as to what has been said.

I don’t know when I woke up, but I found a small meal of bread with fruit on the table to my side. I quickly dig in, finding the bread soft and fluffy, the fruit ripe and juicy. A lovely meal, even as simple as it was; I cleaned the plate. Not having realized how hungry I was until looking at the empty plate.

I ring the bell they gave me, my maid appears immediately.

“what can I do for you, Sir?”

“Can I have some fruit tea, please?”

“Of course, one moment.” She disappears around the corner. It doesn’t take long for her to appear with my tea.

“Thank you,” I say. She nods her head, standing in the corner.

“I don’t need anything else, thank you.” With that, she leaves.

I read a short book while enjoying the nice room. Eventually, I hear a knock. “Come in,” I say.

“The Matriarch will see you now.”

“Okay.” Following the maid towards the familiar room.

“Hello, Aeternum.”

“Hello, Tilda.”

“Congratulations on your mission. I hope we can have you on more missions in the future. Your title is in the process of being done; return to me in a few days for the paperwork.”

“Will do, and thank you.”

“How did you find the team?”

“They were very professional and skillful.”

“I am glad; they are expensive.” She lightly taps her fingers on the desk. “I hear you didn’t like the minecarts.”

I wince as she says it. “Well… They are uncomfortable.”

She smiles at my words, “don’t worry, I know.”

I turn a shade pinker at the teasing.

“We can talk later, head home. I will mail you at a later date.”

“Okay, have a good day.”

“Will do; see you another day Aeternum.”

With that, I leave. Teleporting home with haste. I head into the garden, enjoying the slightly warmer breeze. Sitting and admiring the sky for a short time.

Jengal actually shows up today. Sitting beside me, “Hey, Aeternum!”

“Hi, Jengal,” I say in a far calmer tone.

“Did you have fun on your trip?”

“You know what? I actually did.” Smiling at the memory. That crew was good fun.

“Good, see anything interesting.” He says while sitting at my side, enjoying the view too.

“The sky was the deepest shade of purple you will ever see.”

“Sounds crazy, really dark then?”

“Obviously,” I say sarcastically. “Although, brighter than you would think.”

“What are the enderman like?”

“Have you never met one?”

“No, they are a rare monster.”

“Tall, black, purple eyes and are vengeful,” I say while recalling that scarred asshole. Nearly got me killed before being restrained. I will have to look into what happened to him. I wonder if the Polynesia charm works on enderman.

“Don’t piss off the enderman, good to know.”

“Here, have some of this,” I say, passing Jengal some chocolate.

He bites into it, savoring every bite. “It’s very good.”

“Thank you.”