The Last of the Ender Crystal Read online

  He dove at her with the sword. She dodged. It was clearly hard for her to move in this tight, cramped space, but she looked pretty confident in herself.

  “I’m surprised you’re fighting me right now,” she went on. “Don’t you need cheering crowds to get anything done?”

  “I’m surprised you left the jungle temple for one man in a mineshaft, even though you have all these mobs working for you,” he shot back. “Couldn’t you have just sent one of your servants to fight me? An armed skeleton, or … Drake or Mick?”

  She chuckled. “Drake and Mick are the perfect sort of people: they’ll follow any fad and they know I’m always right.”

  “Then how do you think they’re doing guarding your jungle temple?” he smirked.

  Shouts and screams were echoing into the mineshaft from the entrance behind the Ender Dragon. For the first time, she looked frazzled. Suddenly, Drake burst into the mineshaft, out of breath, and grabbed a wall to steady himself.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

  “We’ve lost the jungle temple!” he panted. “The villagers took it back and freed all the prisoners! Some weird-looking lady was leading them, and she knew all the secret passageways! We didn’t stand a chance!”

  There was a low rumbling sound, like thunder. It took me a second to realize it was the sound of the Ender Dragon growling from deep in her throat. She slashed out with her front paw, knocking Drake across the mineshaft. For a few seconds it looked like he flew. Then he hit another wall, coughing. He was going to be okay, but that was a major blow!

  Furious, the Ender Dragon turned back on Steve Alexander. I’d never seen her look scarier than she did right then. Her body looked like an enormous, hulking shadow, barely contained in the tunnel, her fiery purple eyes blazing in the darkness like curses.

  Steve Alexander stood his ground, sword out, daring her with his posture. She lunged forward, her fangs showing, trying to bite him. She was so big she could have eaten him for dinner, but when her mouth was just about to close on him, he struck with his sword. The blow was harsher than she expected, knocking her back.

  He took this opportunity to strike her again, knocking her back once more. Suddenly I understood what he was doing: he was trying to push her into the room with the End portal!

  Her tail swung out and caught his feet, tripping him. Steve Alexander fell to the ground, barely managing to hold on to his sword. By the time he stood back up, the Ender Dragon had stepped farther back and out of his reach.

  “That weapon is more dangerous than it looks; I’ll give you credit for that,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean it will defeat me. I still have my army of mobs, and it’s dark down here.”

  As she said it, armed skeletons and Endermen began to spawn in the dark passageway. First it was only Steve Alexander, the Ender Dragon, and Drake, but in moments monsters surrounded them in the darkness, hissing and spitting. Wolf began attacking to keep the mobs away from his master. Still, he could only do so much.

  “In here!” a voice called from outside. This wiped the smug smile off the Ender Dragon’s face. As the mobs were all closing in on Steve Alexander, a woman burst into the mineshaft, holding a torch and a diamond sword. She was followed by more villagers with weapons.

  “Maya!” Steve Alexander cried, relieved.

  “I told you I’d give you a reason to believe in friends again!” Maya said, slashing back at an armed skeleton with her sword.

  “No matter what happens, I will never forget you, Maya!” he shouted back.

  The Ender Dragon looked around the scene frantically. The villagers were taking care of all the mobs, freeing up Steve Alexander to fight her. And suddenly Steve Alexander’s wife and son were beside him! He looked relieved to see them safe and out of their dungeon cells.

  Steve Alexander got a brief second to hug and whisper something to his family. Then he turned his hard eyes back on the Ender Dragon and strode toward her, no hesitation in his step. He wasn’t a stammering, nervous wreck anymore. He had the look of a man on a mission who would not be stopped.

  He looked like a hero.

  The Ender Dragon took a step back. She shot purple fireballs out of her mouth in every direction, not caring whether they hit villagers or mobs. The villagers would be okay, but the affected mobs were easily finished off by the non-affected villagers. Steve Alexander easily dodged the fireballs’ paths, avoiding them completely. He stood before his former best friend, his sword out.

  “Enough!” he said. “This is between you and me. It’s time to end this.”

  CHAPTER 18

  With mobs and villagers still fighting in the background, Steve Alexander and the Ender Dragon lunged for each other. He slashed his sword while she kept trying to blast him, each barely dodging the other’s attack. They were on pretty even footing, which had to worry the Ender Dragon. With their size difference, she should have easily been in control. But Steve Alexander was matching her for everything she had, and she couldn’t move much in the mineshaft’s tunnels. As their fight raged on, he succeeded in pushing her back into the portal room.

  I could barely tear my eyes away for a second. Destiny was biting her fingernails. Alex looked ready to join the battle if only she could.

  I didn’t know how the stalemate would break. Then the Ender Dragon gained a slight advantage. Her tail struck out, hitting up against Maya, Mayor Pandra, and the boy Steve, who were all standing near one another. She slammed them all back against the wall, keeping them caught there behind her tail. The three of them struggled but couldn’t break free.

  “No!” Steve Alexander cried.

  “You see, even now you still have weaknesses,” the Ender Dragon said. “That’s why you turned down my offer for power, and that’s why you’d never make a good ruler. If you really want to be number one, you can only look out for yourself. If anyone else gets in the way, no matter how much you think you care about them, you must let them go.”

  “Release them and fight me!” he shouted.

  She shook her head. “They are my prisoners. Bow to me and I will release them. Fight me, and I will make you all very sorry.”

  Oh no! I thought. My heart was pounding so hard it hurt. I itched to defend Steve Alexander. I felt so helpless, only being able to watch. All the legends I knew about Steve Alexander had never mentioned any of this!

  He was gasping for breath, and his eyes were darting around as he tried to figure out what to do. The Ender Dragon waited, enjoying her advantage.

  “You’re right that Drake and Mick are fools,” she said. “But you are so much more clever. I want you at my side again. Think about all our nights together, our battles. Think of all the statues of us. We will go down in history together, you and I. We can go down as mortal enemies, or we can go down in the history books as a team.”

  “Sorry, not falling for it,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot since I met you, Jean.” The use of her old name made the Ender Dragon cringe and close her eyes. He went on, “I learned about betrayal, about greed, about not being able to believe that everything is as it first appears. I have you to thank for those lessons. But that’s not all. By knowing you, I also learned about true friendship, about those who will help you even if it doesn’t involve them, those who think for themselves, and those who will stand up when they see something is wrong.”

  The Ender Dragon let out a shriek. I saw that Maya had somehow pulled her sword arm out from under the dragon’s tail and struck with all her might. This made the Ender Dragon’s tail recoil, releasing her prisoners.

  It also gave Steve Alexander the perfect opportunity. He leaped forward, his sword raised. It struck the Ender Dragon in the chest, forcing her back. Another strike! She stepped back again, her legs unsteady. Her feet were touching the steps that led to the End portal. They’d almost made it!

  Steve Alexander drew back his sword arm. I held my breath. The sword forced the Ender Dragon back even more, her back feet clumsily slipping into the porta
l. She tried to rear up and free herself, but he didn’t give her the chance. He vaulted toward her, and for a second it looked like Steve Alexander was flying, his feet off the ground, his sword held high. Wolf was leaping with him. There was an explosion of light as his sword struck the dragon and he forced her all the way into the portal. Then dragon, man, and dog all fell through the portal and were gone. The purple sword dropped to the floor of the mineshaft, glinting.

  CHAPTER 19

  The people of the overworld were all crying out and rubbing their eyes. Maya approached the fallen sword and picked it up, holding it close to her.

  Drake, clutching his side, inched forward. “Where’d Steve Alexander go? What happened?”

  Maya turned on him fiercely. “He’s in the End!” she shouted. “He told me he didn’t know if he could ever escape it, but that he would go there if he had to to stop the Ender Dragon.”

  The people took this in, dazed. They had looks that said they would never do what he did, but they were grateful he’d had the guts to do it.

  “I shouldn’t have made so much fun of him before,” said a voice. A hooded man in the crowd was speaking. I recognized him from an earlier scene—he was the man who had asked Drake and Mick to give him dirt on Steve Alexander. “I thought he only fought monsters for glory, but if he did this … he’s a hero.”

  Maya looked at the man for a long time. “Is that how you’ll remember him?”

  “Yes!” the man insisted. “He was the greatest hero the Overworld has ever seen! He saved all of us!”

  “And so the legend is born,” someone whispered next to me. It was Yancy, who looked as stunned as I was by the true story of what had happened. I could understand. I was feeling shaky, like I needed to sit down.

  Maya turned and looked at the crowd. “What Steve Alexander had in him, and what he chose to do, is a possibility for all of us,” she shouted. “He was not perfect. But when he realized the true threat of the Ender Dragon, he didn’t care what happened to him, so long as she was stopped. It’s easy to show bravery when everyone around you is being brave. It is much scarier and more noble to show bravery when no one else will.”

  There was another light, and I wondered what were we going to be shown now. This experience had answered so many questions, but I still had a ton! I didn’t hate Steve Alexander or think he was a liar anymore. I had wanted to believe he was perfect, and I knew Maya was right when she said he wasn’t. But seeing him for who he really was, mistakes and all, had kind of made me like him even more. He felt more real now than he had as a statue meant to symbolize everything that is good. I’d fought some pretty scary things in my life, though nothing on the scale of what Steve Alexander had defeated. Could I ever be like him?

  I thought we were going to see another scene, but when the light cleared this time and I blinked, we were back in Maison’s bedroom. The book was no longer glowing. It looked like a normal book, and my friends standing around me in Maison’s room made up a normal scene. Except we were all blinking and overwhelmed.

  “Wait, I still have questions!” Maison cried. “Did Steve Alexander find a way to get out of the End? Did he return home?”

  “I feel so bad for him going into the End like that,” Destiny said. I could see that she’d really bitten her nails down to the quick during our journey through time. “Just him, his dog, and the Ender Dragon—forever?”

  “I’m sure he got out,” Alex said. “You saw how smart he was, and that vision was only about stuff happening around the battle against the Ender Dragon.”

  We all had seen how smart he was, though I didn’t know if that meant anything when it came to the End. Still, I hoped Alex was right!

  “We still have a big, big problem,” Yancy pointed out. “None of that helped us find the Ender crystal shard. And if we don’t find that, we’re still done for.”

  CHAPTER 20

  Then there was a knock on the door. Maison jumped. We all looked at each other, horrified.

  Despite all of the adventures we’d shared, Maison’s mom still didn’t know about Alex, me, or the Minecraft world. My dad knew about our adventures in different worlds, and I’d always wondered how Maison kept all our shared experiences from her mom. It sure seemed like her mom should be asking more questions.

  “Hide!” Maison whispered to Alex and me. She called out, “Just a second, Mom!”

  The door opened anyway. Alex and I froze, caught in Maison’s mom’s stare. She’d seen us once before, but that was when most people were brainwashed by Herobrine, so she hadn’t realized that we were from another world. What was she going to say now?

  I thought Maison’s mom might flip out or scream or tell someone to call the police. Instead she smiled at us, and said, “It’s about time we all met.”

  “Mom?” Maison said, unbelieving.

  “Oh, be serious,” her mom said, sitting down on the edge of the bed casually, as though she met people from a different world every day. What was going on here? “Zombies tear up my house, Maison stops a monster takeover at her middle school … You didn’t think I had any idea of what my own daughter was doing?”

  My mouth was hanging open. I didn’t know how to close it right then.

  “Mom?” Maison said again, still unable to believe it.

  Maison’s mom shook hands with Alex and me, which was a little weird, given that she has fingers and we don’t.

  “Wait, hold on,” Yancy said. “You don’t find this odd at all?”

  She smiled at Yancy as if he were being cute. But Yancy wasn’t someone who acted cute.

  “No, not at all,” she said. “It’s about time we have a talk, though, Maison. In this family, for many generations, we have given a special gift to our daughters on their twelfth birthdays. I know it’s still a few days away, but I think it is time.”

  She reached into her pocket and pulled out something glowing.

  CHAPTER 21

  Maison gasped as the purple glow lit up her face. The crystal shard was hanging on a chain, like a necklace. But it was an Ender crystal shard, no doubt about it.

  “How … ?” was all Maison could get out.

  “We have known about the Overworld for thousands of years,” her mom said. “When our ancestor, Maya, had a daughter, she gave this crystal to her on her twelfth birthday. She told her daughter then about the adventures she had shared with Steve Alexander. She vowed that the crystal would always remain in her family, in case the Ender Dragon was ever freed and needed to be stopped again.”

  “Maya is … my ancestor?” Maison’s eyes were brimming with emotion as she heard this.

  “You mean it?” I looked wildly back and forth between Maison and her mom. “Our families go way back!”

  “Yes,” Maison’s mom said. “It is your destiny to be together as friends and allies. And it is your destiny to fight the dragon once more.”

  Yancy was staring at the Ender crystal, astonished. “So that was what the clue meant? Find the Earth woman. Find Maison!”

  Maison was holding the Ender crystal in her hand like the most precious gift. Her eyes still had that trembling look.

  “Does that mean we’re not part of this destiny?” Destiny asked. “Our family doesn’t have any history like that.”

  “As far as we know,” Yancy put in. “Until two minutes ago, we didn’t know Maison had this ancestry, either.”

  “Of course it is still part of your destiny,” Maison’s mom said. “You have chosen this path in all your past adventures, and through your determination to stop the Ender Dragon now. It doesn’t matter where you came from—your choices are noble choices, and you are just as much a part of the fight as Maison.”

  Wow, I thought. She even talked a bit like Maya.

  Maison was kind of laughing and choking at the same time, still staring at the Ender crystal. “I can’t believe it! I just can’t …”

  “It was your connection to Maya that must have led you to the stones you needed to make the Earth portal,�
� Maison’s mom said. She tucked a stray hair behind Maison’s ear. “I am so glad I can finally share all of this with you.”

  “Does this mean you’ll also help us in the battle against the Ender Dragon?” Yancy asked.

  “Of course,” Maison’s mom said. “When I was twelve, I was told it might someday be my duty. I am ready.”

  There was a lot of excited talking and planning after that. We needed to get this crystal shard back to my house and show it to Dad, and then we could combine it with the other crystal shards and make a sword, like Steve Alexander had done. With all the crystal shards safely in our hands and out of the grasp of the Ender Dragon, we actually stood a chance of defeating her!

  Suddenly, I could feel something stirring behind me.

  I whirled. Two Endermen had stepped through Maison’s computer, right into her bedroom!

  “Maison!” I cried.

  It all happened so fast. The Endermen teleported right over to Maison, grabbing her by each arm. Alex drew back her arrows and sent them flying, but it was too late. I heard Maison let out a shriek, I heard the arrows fly—and then Maison and the Endermen were gone!

  “No!” I cried, jumping up. “How did they get here?”

  “The Ender Dragon’s power must have grown stronger!” Yancy exclaimed. “She’s able to transport her mobs to Earth!”

  “Maison!” her mom shouted frantically, running to the computer. “Maison, where are you?”

  I knew better than to look in this room. The Endermen were long gone—and they had Maison, and the last of the Ender crystal.

  “Through the portal!” I shouted. “Maybe we can find her on the other side!”

  I dove through the computer screen.

  Everything went green, blue, and red, and then I fell out the other end, landing safely in the Overworld. I was back in my house, and it was all still in one piece. Dad was standing there, looking at me in concern. I saw he had grabbed his diamond sword.