Withering Heights- Part 3: An Ocean Adventure

(If you have not read it, please read Part 2 first)
Note: As well as content from Minecraft, this story may contain references to the Fortnite: Battle Royale storyline and a few other books, movies, and games.
===Chapter 1: A Reunion and a Departure===
Pete, Fredrick, the other Brutes, and the other piglins had made it back home safely. Now they were going to the place Jeb had told them to go, the hoglins hauling pieces of obsidian. They would meet up with Steve, Jessica, and Amy at long last. Pete, who now remembered everything from the black skeleton in Ironstand to the fortress before it exploded, held the cube. It had been a large victory, but was just the beginning. They would have many more challenges to overcome, many more cubes to find.
Eventually they arrived, and in the Overworld, Steve, Jessica, and Amy were waiting. Pete and the piglins assembled and lit the portal, and it appeared for the three on the other side to walk through. 
"Pete?" Steve immediately asked. "What happened to you?"
"A lot," Pete replied, showing Steve the cube. "I hear you have two."
"We do," Jessica said, proudly holding up the one from the stronghold. Amy showed him the other.
"Herobrine has one right now, and he is currently ahead of us on our race to get the third one," said Fredrick. "However, me and Bert can't come with you." 
Steve nodded, but Jessica looked puzzled. 
"We can't go into the Overworld," one of the Brutes explained, pointing at a zombified piglin. "We'll turn into those things," 
"And I'm afraid I can't come either," Amy said. "I'll die if I go in water, and potions can't really help."
"Well, I suppose it's just the three of us," Pete said to Jessica and Steve. 
"Good luck," Bert, who had came along, said. "You'll need it."
Pete, Steve, and Jessica walked back through the portal, bringing a brewing stand and some ingredients with them. Potions of water breathing would really come in handy when spending days, maybe weeks, underwater.
===Chapter 2: The Full Story of the Seven Cubes===
I won't be able to talk to you much, Jeb said.
So I'll tell you everything now. The full truth about the cubes.
"Tell us," Steve said.
Okay. It started a long time ago, before you were created. Herobrine had corrupted the world, turned humans into zombies and skeletons, peaceful villagers into Illagers. Notch and I created you to restore the balance, but we also created something else. Seven cubes and a sphere. They held immense power, and we knew we needed to hide them. Notch created puzzles, traps, entire structures and creatures just to defend them. And he created all of them knowing barely anything about them. We hoped to hide them from Herobrine, but now they are hidden from you. 
"If Herobrine's been looking for them for so long, how come he hasn't found them all by now?" Jessica asked.
I've done everything I can to prevent him from coming back to this world. He's only been here two years now, and has only started looking a month ago.
"So that's it?"
I could go into more detail, but I don't need to, so I won't.
There was silence for a few minutes, and then Pete spoke. 
"So do you know anything about what we're supposed to do next?" He asked.
Yes. I know that you need to look for ocean ruins. Drowned ruins. It may take a long time, but in some of them there is secret treasure. I think it is a compass, but whatever it is, use it to proceed to the next step of your journey. 
Steve, Pete, and Jessica looked concerned, but nodded and started brewing up the water breathing potions. They fished for more pufferfish, because they would need a lot of water breathing potions. After they had around fifteen, they each drank one. They tasted weird and sour, but they needed them. After they had done that, they downed some potions of night vision so they could see better underwater. And they jumped in.
"We're supposed to look for drowned ruins," Steve said. "If we can't find any, just follow around the drowned. They can lead us to them."
So they officially set off on their adventure. Soon, there would be no turning back.
=== Chapter 3: Into the Depths ===
Steve was the first to jump in, followed by Pete, then Jessica. With their potions, they could see, hear, talk, and move around perfectly well underwater.
“So, what exactly are ocean ruins?” Jessica asked.
“Ocean Ruins, also known as Drowned Ruins, are destroyed stone structures found underwater. Nobody knows where they came from, but they could be the ruins of the buildings humans lived in before they got turned into zombies and drowned.”
“Ummmm... ok?” She asked.
”They’re pretty common,” Steve said. “And if we can’t find any, we can follow around drowned or dolphins.”
They were common, and they found one soon enough.
“Those are drowned,” Pete told Jessica, pointing towards the group of them. “They can be dangerous if they have tridents.”
Steve took out his latest invention, a redstone-powered waterproof revolver, and shot at the one with the trident. Pete and Jessica tried to take care of the rest, and Steve helped when he was done with the trident one.
Then, they swam down to inspect the ruin. It was built with stone bricks, and had a treasure chest that was half covered in gravel. They looked inside, and found nothing but a fishing rod and an enchanted book.
“Dig,” Pete said. “It’s supposed to be hidden.”
They dug. They uncovered some more stone, and an empty chest, but nothing unusual. Jeb had said that it wasn’t in any drowned ruin.
“Let’s keep looking,” Steve said after they had slept and ate on the surface. They drank some more potions, jumped back in, and kept looking. This time, they found some dolphins and followed them around. They weren’t led anywhere, but they swam past one while following them, so swam down to inspect.
The drowned spotted them, and took out their tridents. Once again, Steve took out his gun, and they did what they had did the last time. But this time, it wasn’t as easy. Two of them had tridents, and one of them chose to fight Pete, who only had a sword, and needed to get up close. The trident grazed his leg, and he swam up, then dived down. The drowned hit him again before it died, but Pete got it in the end. After they were done, they went down to dig. And this time, they found something. It was a peice of paper. It looked like a fragment of an enchanted map.
“I think I know what we’re looking for,” Steve said. “We need to find the other peices of this enchanted map.”
“An enchanted map?” Jessica asked.
“I’ll explain later,” the player said as they swam to the surface to tend to Pete’s wound.
=== Chapter 4: Treasure Hunt ===
Another potion downed. Back into the ocean. Jessica had gone out and scouted out all the nearby drowned ruins, and one was coming up. They already had two fragments of the enchanted map (which is basically a locator map (in Java just a normal map) with a few other things), and had around three-quarters of it to find. The last part they had found had been a copy of one of the ones they had already found, so that showed that they wouldn’t have to travel all around the world to get the whole thing.
After taking out the drowned with a few shots and swings of the sword, Pete, Steve, and Jessica went down to investigate. The chest had some iron and a cursed fishing rod, so they dug through the gravel. Another piece of the map, this time a new one that didn’t fit quite yet. They swam back up to check on their small makeshift base, then went back in to go raid another.
They knew the drill by now. A few good shots took out the one with the trident, and the rest were easily batted away with a Netherite sword. Jessica had gotten a little wound on her arm, so swam back up while the others dig around, not bothering to look in the chest. This time, nothing.
Another. They repeated the process. Another fragment of the map. It took a long time, but finally, finally they got all twelve pieces. When they put them together, the enchanted map instantly repaired itself, and a little indicator showed up on the south side of the map. Time to go out on a treasure hunt.
Pete, who was the cartographer, held the enchanted map, while Jessica took the brewing stand and Steve carried the cubes in an Ender Chest. After some time, the indicator matched up with the X, and it was time to start digging.
“Steve,” Pete asked. “Do you have any idea what we’re looking for or what we’re doing?”
“I barely know any more than you do,” Steve replied. “But I know that in all normal buried treasure chests, you find a heart of the sea, a rare gem used to make a conduit. This is not normal, though.”
They dug down pretty deep, and didn’t hit anything until they were searching through an underwater cave. They had found a treasure chest.
“Let’s open it,” Jessica said. “Whatever’s inside has to give us a clue about what to do next.”
Steve opened it, and no monster came out and attacked them. It was an ordinary chest with three things: a Heart of the Sea, a compass, and some diamonds.
“This is surprisingly normal for a treasure chest we found with an enchanted map while looking for a magical cube,” Steve said as he examined what was inside. “If there’s nothing unusual to see or do, I guess we should just do the normal thing: Craft a conduit.
===Chapter 5: Race to the Next Level===
Steve attached the final nautilus shell to the Heart of the Sea, and it closed together, creating a conduit. Steve didn't have any prismarine, so he had had to take and dissect some of the sea lanterns from the drowned ruins in order to activate the conduit. The ring around it was almost complete, and Jessica was returning with another sea lantern. Steve and Pete took it apart, and the ring was complete. It was small and flimsy, but just enough to activate the conduit to its lowest level. It opened, and Pete, Steve, and Jessica felt a small surge of power.
"Well, we have the conduit," Pete said. "What now? Do we use that compass or something?"
"Who knows," Jessica answered. "Let's try."
Pete, who was the cartographer, took out the compass. It pointed somewhere.
"Well, nothing magical happened," Jessica said. "Do we follow the compass, or is it just doing what it normally does?"
Pete examined the compass for a moment, then spoke. "Well, it is acting a bit strange. We could follow it, but if this has something to do with the conduit, and something breaks the ring, it could deactivate and we would be lost."
"It's worth a try," Steve said. "Let's go up to the surface and prepare. We'll go tomorrow."
The three of them slept, and all woke up when the sun rose. Steve used the small inventory space (Withering Heights is supposed to be more realistic then normal Minecraft. Since Steve is a player, he has as much inventory space as a hotbar, but some things can't stack) he had to take the brewing stand and cubes, and Pete held the compass, leading the way.
They traveled through deep oceans, coral reefs, under icebergs. Nothing happened... until... the compass broke? The pointer suddenly turned around and was pointing in a different direction.
"What happened?" Jessica asked when Pete looked confused and turned around. "Do you think the ring broke?"
Pete examined it, and came to an answer. 
"I don't know," he said. "But if it all of a sudden pointed in a different direction, it could mean that we're close to what we're looking for."
"Let's set up a base here," Steve then said, and soon the three of them came up and set down the cubes and the brewing stand. They slept, and the next day, it was time. 
They got out their shovels and picks, and once again, started to dig. 
They dug for a long time, and didn't hit any stone bricks or prismarine, didn't find any secret map or treasure. Just some iron and Redstone ore. 
They started to think that the compass hadn't turned around because they were close, but because maybe the conduit had broke and they were stuck. 
"We haven't found anything," Jessica finally said. "Do you think we should just follow the compass? Maybe it was never telling us to dig, but to follow it?"
"We don't want to have to go on another journey, following this compass wherever it takes us," Pete replied. "If we think that we've really been digging for nothing, we'll all figure out what to do together."
It turned out that they wouldn't need to go find what the compass was pointing towards. Because Herobrine and his army were coming for them. And they realized it when they saw the black skeletons carrying the fully activated conduit. 
A moment later, a ball of blue substance whizzed by Steve's face, and he looked to see a blue blaze-like creature coming at him.
They had almost forgotten that Herobrine was also looking for the cube. And now, they were remembering it in the worst way possible.
===Chapter 6: An Ally Who Knows===
Steve, Pete, and Jessica were in a battle with Herobrine's army. Steve was keeping the cubes safe in his inventory while making plans to escape, but Herobrine knew where the things he wanted were. If they lost and couldn't escape, they would lose the cubes, and might not be able to find the one they were looking for. 
"Pete," Steve said after he batted away one of the blue things from the water blazes. "We need to somehow sneak away."
"I know," he said. "They can't get the cubes or compass."
But they were getting cornered. The wither skeletons and the strange blazes, which Steve had decided to just call Water Blazes, were pushing them into an underwater cave. Either they would just fall to the army, or they would somehow survive until the water breathing potions ran out, and would just drown. It was amazing they had survived as long as they did, but they were cornered. There was no way to escape....
(New scene)
Something was happening above them. Ruth and the others could hear noises, noises that were not drowned or guardians or dolphins or squid of fish or anything that was supposed to be in an ocean like this. They knew that there was a small cave above the ravine, but what could be making such a racket up there? 
(Back to the battle)
A group of wither skeletons were closing in. A Water Blaze floated up, and a rock moved. Wait... a rock moved? Everything that happened next happened very fast. A hole opened below them. Pete swam through, followed by Steve, then Jessica. Steve took out his pickaxe to get rocks to close the hole while the others fought off the wither skeletons, now hopeful. They closed the hole up, and only then looked around them to see how they had gotten there. And what they saw was incredible. 
They were in a closed ocean ravine, but it was lit by sea lanterns and had many of what looked like... houses. They were in some sort of underwater city. A creeper city, based on all the blue creepers everywhere. A group of blue creepers were looking at the three of them very curiously, and they guessed that those were the ones that had rescued them.
"Who... are you?" Jessica asked.
"I think those are Water Creepers." Steve answered. 
The Water Creepers looked a bit surprised, then one spoke. "Yes. We are." 
"Okay..." Jessica said. "Is this your city?"
"It is," one answered. "And I think... you're looking for the cube, right?"
"You know?" Pete and Steve both said. "You know about the cubes?"
"Yes. And you've come to the right place."
===Chapter 7: Rifted===
"So we used an enchanted map to find buried treasure," Pete told the Creepers. "And made a conduit. We weren't exactly sure what to do next, so we followed the compass until we found Herobrine's army. You know what happened next."
"Yes, yes." One creeper said. "We know about the compass. It and the cube are in some of our lore."
"Good," the villager said. "We really have came to the right place. Now do you know what we need to do next?"
"No," a different Water Creeper said. We know that you follow the compass to eventually find the cube, but we don't know what and where the compass leads to."
"Okay," Steve said. "Let's stay here to prepare for a bit, and then we'll follow the compass. We'll need to be very careful, as Herobrine is looking for the exact same thing the exact same way."
So Pete, Steve, and Jessica stayed in the creeper city for a few hours. They got more potions, and also new armor and tools.
And eventually, it was time to go. Ruth, a Water Creeper, would come with them for the beginning.
The four of them followed the compass, and did not find Herobrine and his army. Ruth stayed for longer than she was planning on, helping out. And just when she was about to turn back, they found something. There was some sort of mine, or something.
Herobrine had been there. And his army was ahead of them. 
"We need to go in," Pete said. "The army's already searching, and they could have found it for us."
Steve hesitated, then agreed. He went in, followed by the others. Ruth came too.
"You don't need to come," Jessica told her. "You're supposed to go back. You've helped us, but I don't think you should go any further."
But the Creeper objected. 
"I'm going. I know what I'm doing and getting in to, and I'm going."
After some arguing, they agreed to let her come, and descended down. And they knew that Herobrine had been there after they fought one of those Water Blazes. They followed the tunnel, and fought off several more. And saw what they had been looking for. A rift. It was guarded by some wither skeletons. 
"What is that?" Jessica asked, pointing at the rift. 
"It's a rift," Steve answered. "A portal that can generate randomly. Normal ones are good for escaping fights, but this is no normal one."
"But we need to go through," Jessica said. 
"Yes. We will. Everyone, through the rift!"
Ruth was the first to make it, followed by Steve, then Pete and Jessica. 
Another step of their adventure had begun. 
==Chapter 8: Something Familiar...==
Steve, Pete, Ruth, and Jessica emerged underwater just off the shore of a small island. Besides that little island, there was no land around, and the sea was deep and dark, the only light being the glow squids swimming around. 
"So, what now?" Pete wondered. "Let's go down and see what there is to see."
"Yes," Steve said, swimming into the deep dark ocean. It was very deep, and the glow squid did little to illuminate it. And then, he found what they had been looking for.
A monument. A guardian was swimming around, and they shot at it before it could laser them. 
"It's a monument," said Pete. "Steve, have you ever took on one of these?"
"Yes, I have," he replied. "But never while fighting an evil god and his army of nether creatures."
Jessica was already swimming towards it, taking out some guardians on the way inside. 
"Let's follow her," Ruth said. "Isn't it what we're supposed to do?"
The others nodded, and followed Jessica into the Ocean Monument. And on the way in, Pete saw the first sign that this would be a lot harder than taking on a normal monument. A Wither Skeleton walked along the sea floor, swimming up when it saw him. 
"It's not just us and the guardians," Steve said. "He's here. We need to go find whatever we're looking for now, if Herobrine hasn't found it already."
They went in to the monument. The Elder Guardians were giving them mining fatigue, so they had to navigate the whole thing like a maze, facing many Water Blazes and Wither Skeletons. They encountered one of the Elder Guardians after a few minutes, and started to fight it.
"That's an Elder Guardian," Pete said to Jessica, who didn't know. "They're sort of the bosses of a monument, and need to be defeated so we can mine the treasure." 
Jessica had already taken out her axe and started fighting, and they took out one. 
Herobrine had actually killed the second one for them, and now they were both looking for the same one, to get the same reward.
==Chapter 9: ...Or So They Thought==
The last Elder Guardian was withering away. Water Blazes were surrounding them, and a Wither Skeleton was holding up its sword over the Elder Guardian. 
“They need me alive,” Steve said. “I don’t know exactly why, but they do.” 
“We’re not leaving,” Ruth said. 
“Don’t think of it as leaving or escaping,” the player told them. “You’re heading back, then following close behind until it’s safe. And right now, it’s not safe. I’ll meet up with you when it is.”
They had no choice. Pete, Ruth, and Jessica swam out of the monument as Wither Skeletons grabbed Steve, giving him their effect until he was nearly dead, then taking him away. Herobrine was now one step ahead.
A moment later, Steve watched as a Wither Skeleton in full diamond armor removed the dark prismarine in the center of the monument. It moved aside the gold blocks, looking for whatever was hiding there. A key. A simple key. 
The Wither Skeletons immediately started searching the monument, looking for things that they key could unlock. Steve stayed in the makeshift iron cell they had made for him. And while he was waiting, Herobrine spoke.
Hello, Steve.
“What else do you want? You have me trapped, you can use me to talk to Jeb and Notch and all the others.”
Oh, yes. I can do that now. But they don’t have all the power. They don’t know what’s happening. They don’t know that I’m ahead, and I want to keep it that way.
Steve said nothing. Herobrine didn’t reply.
The Skeletons and Blazes were searching the monument, looking at every piece of prismarine and then removing it to try to find a secret entrance. No luck for a while. Until they found something. A keyhole hidden under a prismarine block and some gravel. 
I’ll let them do this step for me, Steve thought. And when I need to, I’ll find a way to escape. 
But he knew Herobrine had a whole army with him. And he kept remembering what he had said back in the Stronghold. That he was only trying to keep that balance after what Steve had done. And Steve almost believed him. 
No. It couldn’t be true. Herobrine was coming with his army of evil Nether creatures, bringing destruction wherever he went. He said he was keeping it, but he was doing the opposite. 
But Steve has trouble believing that. After all he had been the one who had been sent there to keep balance, and had destroyed the landscape, built huge structures in it, and killed innocent creatures that he didn’t know were sentient and intelligent. 
But he knew better. And if he made it out of all this alive, he would do better. 
== Chapter 10: Keys ==
Prismarine moved, revealing a secret passage. Ruth watched carefully, trying to blend in to the prismarine and the water, as Water Creepers were good at that. Steve was still trapped, and Pete and Jessica were on the small island, waiting for Ruth to bring back some information. A Wither Skeleton in full diamond armor, who she guessed was one of the leaders, instructed some other ones wearing iron to go guard Steve’s cell. 
Then it and the others went down into the secret room, which turned out to be more of a maze.
We can handle those skeletons together, right? Ruth thought. I’ll go up and tell the others.
“I still don’t think he should have gotten himself trapped,” Pete said. “They’ll keep looking for us. They know we can still get the cube.”
“I don’t think it was a good idea either, but now we have to go save him,” said Ruth. 
“I agree,” said Jessica. Pete nodded, and they looked down into the ocean. 
“Most of them are exploring the secret places,” the Water Creeper said. “This is our chance.” 
They jumped in after drinking new potions, swimming down to the monument. Some wither skeletons and water blazes were guarding Steve’s little cage, but like Ruth had said, most were not there. 
They took out their swords, guns, and axes, and went in. Some of the wither skeletons had guns, too. 
“Looks like they learned from us,” Jessica said as she hit a water blaze with her axe. But she soon regretted joking around about that when a bullet hit her in the leg. She moved back, but more skeletons and blazes started to come. 
Pete was putting up a safety bar to stop wither skeletons, but there were still the blazes. And then, Herobrine came. It was the first time he had actually shown himself since the fortress. 
But the only person who could see him was Steve, who was trapped. All Ruth, Jessica, and Pete saw was the Wither. The safety bar broke, and wither skeletons came pouring through. They grabbed the three of them, bringing them into the cell with Steve. 
They knew that they weren’t needed alive. They knew that Herobrine would eventually kill them. But then, Steve’s eyes started to glow. He spoke in a voice that was not his own. 
I’ll keep you alive for now. Steve then fell down unconscious. 
So they were alive. For now. 
They waited in the cell for some time, until the Wither Skeleton in diamond armor came back out of the secret rooms. 
Herobrine appeared. Steve stood up again, and his eyes glowed. 
What did you find, he asked. The wither skeleton said something they couldn’t understand, and took out two keys. Steve woke up, and looked around confused. 
Herobrine, now not possessing Steve, disappeared. The wither skeletons looked at each other, then at the keys. 
“What..what happened?” Steve asked. 
“Herobrine talked to us through you,” Pete said. “You fell down unconscious the first time he did it, and just woke up.” 
“Well, now we’re all trapped here,” he said. “This isn’t the best cell, though, so I bet there are ways we can escape.” 
“I bet they all know that, and they won’t keep us here forever,” the villager answered. “We need to think of a plan soon,” 
Meanwhile, the wither skeletons seemed to have figured something out. One of them took both of the keys, and got to work on something. And they soon figured it out. There was a secret keyhole in the bigger key. And it fit the smaller one. The leader skeleton took both keys, and put one into the other. Whatever as inside, whether it was the cube, or the way to get the cube, they wanted. 
Pete, Steve, Ruth, and Jessica looked at each other as the key opened and a portal appeared. Herobrine’s army started coming through. And Jessica has a plan. 
“Everyone, hold on to me. This might work.” She stuck her arm through the bars, which were not well put together, reaching for the portal. When she had reached as far as she could, the energy from the portal sucked her arm in, pulling apart the bars, pulling her in... and taking everyone else with her. 
They were standing on a ledge in a huge ocean ravine, looking down at a gigantic monument- and those guardians were not normal ones. 
== Chapter 11: The Final Level ==
After drinking new potions, Steve, Pete, Ruth, and Jessica went down into the monument. They had no more potions or ingredients left, but they somehow knew that this was the final level. This was it. 
The guardians were stronger than normal, and they were careful when they fought there way down to the monument. There were also some wither skeletons and water blazes around, confirming that Herobrine was there with them. They made it into the monument, and the monument was huge and maze-like. When they swam inside they were met with three corridors.
“Do we split up?” Steve asked. “I say no.”
“We don’t,” Jessica agreed. “This place is probably filled with those guardians and Herobrine’s monsters. We need to stick together.”
The other two agreed, and they chose the middle corridor. They were greeted by a guardian that started charging up its laser. It hit Ruth back, big they dealt with it. Soon they were met with two more corridors! It really was a maze. A maze full of guardians and monsters.
“Steve,” Pete told him after they knocked down a wither skeleton. “You know how you can talk to Herobrine and he can talk through you? Is there any way you could locate him or talk to him using... that connection you have.”
“Herobrine can talk directly to me because I’m a player. I exist between your world and him and Jeb’s world. However, I’m still mostly tied to this world, the world I basically live in. About him possessing me, well... I think he could possess you just as well. I... don’t know much about that, though.”
Pete nodded, and they continued through the maze. The Maze Monument, as Jessica and Ruth we’re now calling it. 
However, it had another name. The Cube Monument. And the four of them had not forgotten what they were really doing there- the cube they were looking for.
After about fifteen minutes in the “Maze Monument”, they met their first Elder Guardian. It was purple, and slightly glowed. They held up their shields, but they barely did anything against its laser. 
Steve had taken on a monument before. He had killed the three elder guardians pretty easily. But this was different. This one was hard, and it took all four of them to fight it. However, they had guns and enchanted Netherite swords fresh from hell. It was hard, but they did it. The Elder Cube Guardian collapsed in a pile of prismarine me purple particles, and they continued through the maze. 
“The cube could be anywhere,” Ruth said after a moment had passed. “This could have all been a trick. Maybe it’s hidden right under us, or maybe it’s right back at the entrance.”
“That is true,” said Pete, looking around at the prismarine maze. “But it will be a lot easier to find it after we’ve killed the Elder Guardians. You might not realize, but they give you mining fatigue, making you unable to break or move things. Maybe the cube is right under us, but we wouldn’t be able to get it.”
Ruth and Jessica, who hadn’t know that, exchanged looks. They would have to continue navigating this maze, hunting down the Elder Guardians and killing them one by one. At least Herobrine could help with that.
So they continued on. Herobrine actually had killed one of them, and they were both looking for the same one.
But this story is getting repetitive in saying that they continued searching, so let’s skip to when they finally found the center of the maze. And there was the last Elder Guardian. Right there.
It charged up its laser, and Ruth, who had been looking around the center of the room, didn’t see it until she got pushed across the room by it. She yelped, and took out a sword, trying to get back and swing at it. They started fighting. 
Pete and Steve both took out their pistols, and Jessica swam at it with an axe. A normal guardian swam in, and distracted them so that the Elder one could laser Jessica as she brought down her Netherite axe. It got even worse when a group of wither skeletons came, but Steve shot at them while they were trying to decide who to kill first. 
It turned into an all-out battle. At least Herobrine’s creatures were helping kill the guardians. And they did. Soon, the Elder Guardian was dead, and they were trapped in a room with more and more wither skeletons and water blazes coming in every second. 
“Move the blocks!” Steve yelled. “The ones in the center! The treasure is usually there.” But the wither skeletons grabbed them, inflicting the wither effect as they moved away the blocks of Dark Prismarine. And at the center, was the cube. The real one, right there. Steve reached for it, the skeletons holding him back, withering him away. He grabbed the cube, and started pulling, pulling... and suddenly was not in the monument. 
Steve stood up in a cold, green stone room with a hard black floor. 
(Continued in Part 4) (See Storm (Withering Heights Part 4 Teaser)) 
Category:Stories
Category:Withering Heights
Category:Fan Stories