Withering Heights- Part 4: The End

(If you have not read it, please read Part 3)
* Note: As well as references to vanilla Minecraft and Badowie’s End Update, this story may contain references to the Fortnite: Battle Royale storyline and several other games, books, and movies.
=== Chapter 1: Welcome to the End ===
Jessica was suddenly not standing in the monument. A second ago, she had been fighting off wither skeletons as she tried to reach the cube. Now, she was standing on a hard obsidian floor in a room of rough green stone. She had no idea where she was or how she got there, but that wasn’t the first thing she thought. The first thing she thought of was the cube. 
Jessica looked down at her hands. She didn’t have it. Pete, who was also looking around curiously, didn’t have it. Steve wasn’t holding it, but maybe he had it in his inventory? Next, she did think about where she was and how she got there. She first noted that she felt a chill- literally. It was very cold in this green stone room. 
Pete then broke the silence. “Where are we?” He wondered aloud, speaking what everyone has been thinking. 
“Does Steve have the cube?” Jessica asked a second later. 
Steve looked at them. He was suddenly holding a cube, then another, then another. The three that they had found earlier- one from the Nether, and two from the Overworld. He slowly shook his head.
“And Pete,” Steve said. “I think I might know where we are.” He took out a pickaxe, and started mining the green stone. He made a stairway up, and looked at them, looking very concerned. 
“Come up. Carefully. Don’t look at any Endermen.”
Jessica had no idea what he meant, but Pete was starting to think. He had known that there were three dimensions. One full of fire and lava, the Nether. And another. Another one, a cold one full of acid and Endermen. 
So they went up. They were on an island of green stone floating in a dark, starless, void. Obsidian towers surrounded them, and there was a bedrock shape in the middle. And the Endermen. So, so many Endermen. 
“Welcome to the End,” Steve said.
And then they heard a roar.
=== Chapter 2: Another Way ===
“That’s the Ender Dragon,” Steve said. “I’ve never killed it, and it’s been here guarding its egg for... as long as I’ve known about it, and that’s a long time. To kill it, we first need to take out the crystals on the towers- the source of her power.”
Jessica took out some ender pearls. “Could we pearl to the top of the towers and break them?” 
“Yes, but shoot them with this,” Steve said. They only had two guns, so Jessica used some extra materials they had gathered on their adventure.
“Herobrine will probably follow us,” the player said before pearling over to a tower. “I think we need to be quick here on the central island.”
Nobody knew what he meant, but they just threw their pearls, which can be thrown very far. They shot and broke the crystals just before teleporting down, avoiding the explosion. 
But they still had the dragon to worry about. It charged at Pete, launching him into the air and shooting a strange purple fire at him. Surprised, Pete threw a pearl as he fell, teleporting into the ground with a thump, then getting up to see the Ender Dragon fly into the air. 
They continued destroying the crystals and fighting the dragon, but then, a head popped up out of the stairway up from the room. It was a Water Creeper- Ruth. 
“Steve?” She asked. “Where are we?”
“We’re in the End,” he said. “I’ll explain later, but go back into that room. It’s safe there.”
Ruth, who looked cold and confused, listened. Steve had completely forgotten about Ruth, who hadn’t been rifted there at the same time as them. But he needed to think about the Dragon. The thing they needed to defeat to go to the outer islands.
So he did think about the Ender Dragon. The thing that was just protecting its egg, that still hadn’t hatched for hundreds of years. And he thought about what Herobrine had said. That he was just trying to keep the balance. Steve had been the one who destroyed the land, killed its creatures, and built huge structures and farms. And now he was killing this dragon who was just trying to protect its baby. He stopped aiming his gun, and tried looking at it, tried communicating with it like he could do with some other animals. 
He tried to tell the others. “Stop,” he said. “I don’t think we need to fight it.”
“Why?” Jessica asked. “And even if we don’t, wouldn’t it be easier to just kill it?”
“It’s just trying to protect its egg,” the player urged. “I think I can “talk” to it.”
He looked at it again. It seemed to understand him. Ruth, who had heard them talking, came up. 
“What is it?” She asked. “And now can you explain to me what’s really happening?”
Steve was still looking at the dragon, so Pete tried to explain what he knew. “We’re in another dimension called the End. We need to defeat this dragon to get to... I don’t know. I know that we can go somewhere after defeating this dragon, the Ender Dragon.” 
“Well, what is Steve doing?” She asked, a very good question. 
“He thinks there’s another way,” Jessica answered. “He thinks he can somehow talk to it.”
Right when she said that, the dragon flew down, standing on the ground. It started breaking Endstone, digging for something. The egg? Pete guessed as it stopped digging. As if it had heard him, the dragon carefully took out a black and purple egg, placing it on the bedrock thing and flying up into the sky. Steve reached out to touch it... and did. The dragon kept flying. 
“It trusts me,” he said. “It wants me to take the egg,”
“What are you thinking?” Jessica hissed as he lifted up the egg, putting it into a space in his small inventory and dropping a shovel. “Destroy it!”
“I’m thinking that the dragon trusts me and wants me to take the egg,” he replied. “And I’m thinking that this baby dragon could really help us look for the cube,”
Pete obviously agreed with Jessica, but kept quiet for now. At least the dragon wasn’t attacking. The dragon was actually leaving, flying off into the void. And they needed to leave, too. An End Gateway opened.
=== Chapter 3: Into the Unknown ===
Steve, Ruth, Pete, and Jessica threw their pearls into the End Gateway, and one by one, were teleported far, far away. They were standing atop a mountain of smooth red, stone on a floating island full of Endermen. So they were still in the End.
“These are the outer End islands,” Steve said. “I’ve never been there, and all I know is that End cities, the only things left of the old nations of the Endermen, are found here, along with elytra.” 
“So... this is new for both of us,” Jessica said.
“Yes,” Steve replied. “I think we should go ask Jeb about it,” he took out the cube. It took a second, but he was able to reach out to him and talk.
“So we’re in the outer islands. We have the dragon egg and got past the Dragon. I know that you usually only know the first step, but tell us the first step.”
You’ve done well, Jeb replied, and you made a good choice, Steve. Unfortunately, I do not know what you do next, only Notch does. I can try to convince him to help, but for now I can tell you a safe place to go a few islands over. 
Jeb told them a direction to go and a set of coordinates, and Steve thanked him.
And one more thing. The Water Creeper- Ruth, is in danger. Bringing her there, to that house in that biome, is one of the only ways to save her. 
“Okay,” he answered. “We’ll be on our way.”
He let go of the cube, putting it back in his inventory and telling the others what Jeb had said. He told them where they needed to go, and that somehow Ruth was in danger. When she heard that, she just nodded, and Steve soon figured it out.
Ruth was a Water Creeper, and just being out of water could hurt her... that combined with the cold... she really could die. They needed to get on their way.
Using his navigation skills, Pete took the lead, and they set off into the unknown. 
The next island appeared the same for a while, but slowly the red stone began to change into endstone, and large purple plants were everywhere. Steve knew about those- he knew they were Chorus Trees. They picked some of the fruit, and kept walking. The next next island was a cold, orange forest filled with crystals. An orange and purple deer ran by, and a little bug walked around near a pool of acid. They all could tell that the acid was dangerous, and they needed to avoid it. However, the green bug saw them, and started crawling towards them. Jessica had to jump in and take it out with her axe, which was always ready. 
When they made it to the next island, a dangerous place filed with acid falls, it was starting to get obvious that Ruth was in real danger. It was getting harder to move, and they gave her Ender Pearls to make it easier. They were only a few islands away.
=== Chapter 4: In the House ===
They finally arrived at the island Jeb had told them about. It was a large one with a red forest full of strange trees and a crystalline ground. Pools of acid sizzled, and a blue and green creature flew through the sky. 
“I think I see what we’re looking for,” Pete said before he pearled into the forest. “It’s a house.”
The others looked, and saw a small cabin in the distance. It was built out of the red tree-like things. They pearled down to the island, and couldn’t see it anymore through the forest. But they were close. Ruth knew she was getting close, so kept pushing on, going through the strange red forest. It was a lot bigger than they had expected. 
“We could get lost in here,” Ruth said. “And I think we might be going the wrong way.”
Pete stopped. “I think you might be right,” he said, and turned to his right, looking at the Redstone compass. He started walking. They needed to get to that house. Fast.
They walked for another few minutes, Ruth still going, as she knew they were getting close. They hoped whatever they could find at that house could fix their other problem: food. They needed a reliable and safe food source. Chorus fruit could be dangerous. So they all kept pushing on through the cold that they all felt, going through the seemingly endless forest. It had been a big island looking down on it from another, but when they were on it, it felt even bigger. 
And it got worse when they heard a screech. A small black creature flew around, landing on Steve. It was a tiny, loud, red and black bat that was attacking them, especially Ruth. And they didn’t know it, but Blood Bats, found in Bleeding Forests, were venomous and could kill a person or Enderman. And Jessica didn’t know it when it landed on her arm and bit her before she hit it off with her axe, killing it. Another came. And another. An Enderman suddenly attacked. They hadn’t looked at it, but it attacked and started making that buzzing sound.
But wait... was it attacking them? No. It was attacking the bats! It was helping them.
“Come,” it said after taking care of the last bat and teleporting off into the forest. They followed, hoping that it could help them or take them to that house. After a moment, they arrived at a clearing in the woods. There was a small house built out of the red planks and endstone bricks, with a farm and a storage place. It was the one they had seen and were looking for.
“Come in,” the enderman said. “Then you can explain.”
They opened the door and came in. There was a kitchen, a table, a ladder going up to a second level, and a purple fire crackling, providing some warmth.
“Who are you? You’re not from anywhere around here, and by here I mean this dimension.”
“We’re not,” Steve said. “We’re from the Overworld, another warmer dimension.”
“I know about the three dimensions,” it said. “The Nether, the Overworld, and the End.”
“Good,” Jessica replied. “We won’t have to explain that like they did to me. We were told to come here, that it was safe and we could stay for now.” 
“I’ll let you stay for now, but first tell me what’s really going on. Tell me more about yourselves and how you got here.” Since they mostly trusted it, and were pretty desperate, Steve explained everything. About Ironstand, the fortress, the Nether and the piglins, Herobrine, the cubes, the monument, the End... everything up to when they had been attack by blood bats. 
“Interesting story,” it answered after a moment of silence. “I don’t know much about what goes on outside the outer End islands, so I’ll believe it. I’m called Seth, by the way.”
They were a bit surprised that he believed them, but decided that it was good that he did and they could trust him. After all, Jeb had told them to come there, that it was safe and they would find help. 
“But you came here primarily because you needed help,” Seth said. “Because Ruth here was in danger and could die from the cold. I can help with that.”
He took out a bottle of a red substance from a barrel, and explained. “This is a bottle of bleeding incense. It can help with the cold, but also does some bad things. It attracts monsters, monsters like the blood bats I had to save you from earlier.”
“So should I use it?” Ruth asked, speaking up. “It seems dangerous, bit I’m in danger already.”
“Use it,” Seth said. “You need it, and are safe from the blood bats here.” Ruth took the bottle, and inhaled it, waiting for whatever effects it had to kick in. So now they had a solution to that problem. They had one more bigger one to still solve. The cube.
=== Chapter 5: The Creator Himself ===
After taking some more bleeding incense and eating some food, Steve took out the cube and decided to talk to Jeb again. He said that he had tried to convince Notch to help them, and the player hoped he had done that. Ruth was resting, so the three of them all touched the cube.
Hello. 
“Jeb?” Pete asked. “Have you convinced Notch?”
I think I have. I’ve convinced him that there is hope and that he shouldn’t abandon his world, his creation. He knows what to do next and I think will help you.
“Can we see him?” 
Yes. You can talk to him. A moment later, a new voice spoke.
Hello. I’ve heard about you three.
“Yes,” Jessica answered. “We’ve heard about you- the creator. We’ve also heard that you can help us. You know the first step to find the cube.”
I do, and I’ve decided it’s best if I tell you. There are these creatures- void carriers. They sometimes are carrying letters, letters from the ancient Endermen. And some of those letters... I have.... tweaked. They’ll contain some information, some things to help you find what you’re looking for. You’ll also need a compass, and some other Redstone devices. 
“This sounds a bit like what we had to do back with the conduit and the compass,” Jessica replied again. “Lucky we have Pete.”
You are lucky you have an experienced cartographer with you. You’ll need him.
So, they basically knew what they were doing next. Something involving cartography and void carriers, whatever they were. It was time to make some final preparations before setting off to find the cube.
They put everything they would need into Steve’s Ender Chest. Many Bleeding Carrots, some Crawler meat, Bleeding Incense, a compass, some Redstone and Redstone components. They would have been gone, but were having a small argument over whether Ruth should come with them or not. Ruth and Pete both thought that she should go, but Steve and Jessica were against that, and thought it would be best if she stayed with Seth. 
“You need to stay here,” said Steve. “Here you have a good supply of Bleeding incense and a place to stay. What if we ran out while we were traveling?”
“I need to go!” Ruth said. “I’ve been this far, survived this long, and you want me to just wait here while you go out there? Remember, you have competition, and Herobrine doesn’t need most of you alive. Just because I don’t have experience here, doesn’t mean I won’t be helpful.” However, Pete changed his mind.
“They’re right,” he said. “You’ve been through enough and would be in real danger if you came with us. You have a warm place to say and a supply of food and Bleeding incense. We know you would be helpful, but you need to stay here.”
They argued more, and Ruth gave in. She would stay with Seth for now while they went out to find the cube. That disagreement settled, it was time to leave. Steve took the chest, and they set off on their quest to find one of the two remaining cubes.
=== Chapter 6: The Hunt Begins ===
It began. The three of them set off on their journey. They knew they needed to find void carriers, and look at the letters they were carrying. Seth had described what they looked like, so they knew what to look for when they got to the edge of the island. They were not that hard to find, and they found a group of them flying over the void. The hart part would be to get them onto the island, but luckily, Seth had also told them what they ate and what they liked. They couldn’t find the best stuff, void scrap, so took some bleeding sprouts from the forest and held them up.
Eventually, they got a few to come over. Those did not have any letters, so they just kept looking, trying to bring more over to the edge of the island. And after about fifteen void carriers, they found the first letter. They looked at it, and it didn’t seem to have anything of interest, it was just a normal letter probably written by some enderman. Time to keep trying. Soon, they found another one. And this one had something very interesting. 
It was a design of a Redstone contraption, one that Steve did not really know. “Pete?” He asked. “Do you know anything about this device?”
“No, not really,” he said. “But based on what Notch told us to do, I say we build it.”
There was barely any Redstone in the End, and Steve used the spare Redstone dust he had brought just for occasions like this. “I bet you could figure out how to use it after it’s built,” he said as he tried to better figure out the instructions. A few minutes later, he asked Pete and Jessica to go gather some of the red and orange stone, bloodstone, as he read through the rest of the instructions. He would build it, and Pete would use it.
Steve soon got the hang of how to build it. He used the rest of his spare metal and Redstone, but basically replicated what it showed. 
“I did it!” He said, and the other two came over to see. “Pete, you think you could try it out?”
“I can try,” he said, taking the telescope-like device. “Let me see,” He took the device and the compass, and started turning some dials and looking into it. After a while, and after Steve had made a few adjustments, he got the basic idea. 
“It’s very similar to a navigating device I’ve seen, one that I think you know,” he said to the player. “However, I think we need to keep searching the letters, because it’s unclear exactly what I am supposed do now.” 
So, they got more bleeding sprouts, and got some void scrap, and attracted some void carriers. The hunt continued.
=== Chapter 7: An Unwanted Companion ===
While Pete showed Steve exactly how the device worked, Jessica gathered more bleeding sprouts, and even some void scrap. She kept attracting void carriers, and kept searching them for letters. And after some time, they finally found something they needed. It was a letter with a few sets of coordinates.
“So, is it just telling us where to go?” She asked. “It gives us this Redstone thing, but then just tells us where whatever we’re looking for is?” They all three looked at the numbers, as if there was some hidden writing or secret code. “I think this has to do with using the device,” she said after a minute. “But I don’t know how to use it. Pete, with that in mind, could you try to figure out what the coordinates have to do with that device? I could help if you show me the basics.”
“I think I would go faster and better if I did it by myself,” he replied. “Now’s not the time to teach you, if you’re interested.”
“I’m not really interested, I just thought it could come in handy.” Pete was already looking at all his supplies, the compass, the device, and the letters. While he worked, occasionally calling Steve to help with the Redstone, the others set up a temporary base. When they were almost done setting it up, the villager spoke. 
“I’m not completely sure,” he said. “But Steve needs to make some adjustments to the device, so we can use it and those coordinates to locate what we want, whatever it is. We can use those coordinates, the device, and the compass to locate the general area of where the thing is. If it’s the cube, then good, but I think there are more steps than that.” He went on talking to the player about some things Jessica didn’t really understand, and after getting a rest, they took down the base and set off went more. They didn’t see Herobrine, and aside from a few minor attacks, nothing really happened. Until Steve felt something move in his inventory.
It was the dragon egg, the one he had taken with him against the others’ objections. It popped out of his inventory, and he saw why. There was a large crack in the egg. Somehow, when he had taken the egg from the central island, it had started to hatch. The others saw too.
“Why would you take the egg?” Pete asked. “What were you thinking? We should’ve killed the dragon and left, but you insisted on taking that egg!” Jessica nodded.
“It hasn’t even hatched,” Steve replied. “You don’t know what it’s like and what it’ll do. If it starts attacking us, we fight back, and if it doesn’t, then that’s good, and we get it to help us,”
“We kill it,” Pete said. “We can’t take that risk, and none of us want a dragon with us,” 
“Just put the egg down,” Jessica suggested. “Abandon it so it’ll never see us,” Pete nodded, but the player picked it up and shook his head. “No. Just please wait until it hatches. Then we can figure it out.”
“We’ll wait until it hatches to decide,” Jessica said. “But then, we decide together what to do with it.” they agreed, but obviously had completely different plans for what to do with it. Steve wanted to keep it, to help it, so maybe it could help them. The others wanted to kill it or abandon the egg, they didn’t want to do anything with it. But they waited. The egg continued to crack as they continued their journey, using their different navigation tools to show exactly where to go. And soon, it really started hatching. The cracks widened fast, and they knew what would come out.
=== Chapter 8: Storm ===
The egg hatched. Out came a tiny Ender Dragon. When it came out, it didn’t immediately attack them, or try to. It couldn’t. 
“We need to decide what to do with this dragon now,” Pete said. “I say we leave it here, leave before it either attacks us or tries to befriend us. Neither of those options will be good for us.” Jessica seemed to agree. 
“What do you mean, neither of those options will be good for us,” he asked. “First of all, look at it. How could it attack us? Second of all, if it tries to befriend us, that’s great! We can help it and it’ll help us!”
“Do you really want to have a pet Ender Dragon while we look for the cube? We’ll be fine without it, and it’ll just be another burden. We can’t keep it.” But the player didn’t listen. He kept arguing that they should keep it, and it could help them. There was nothing the others could do to convince him otherwise. 
Also, Steve kept thinking back to what Herobrine had said in the stronghold. All I’m trying to do is to restore the balance. I’m doing the thing you meant to do, and failed so horribly to do. The player had been made to restore the balance. And he really had done a bad job so far. But he had been doing better. With the dragon, with the egg... he didn’t want to go back to what he had been. The player he had been. He had thought being the player, the one who was meant to play this world and treat it a bit like a game, meant he could do everything and anything and that he had control over the world. But he knew that was not true. That was not what he was meant for.
So he kept the dragon. He picked it up, brought it with him, and the others couldn’t convince him to stop. The baby dragon was pretty harmless, after all. They continued using the instruments to navigate through the End, and the dragon came with them. It even saved them from a few attacks by blood bats and Shulk Slimes. Pete and Jessica even started to trust it a bit more, and more, and more. They still didn’t want it, but decided that for now, Steve could keep it, doing what he had said. Occasionally they would have to stop to feed it Amber Sprouts or let it catch a Void Carrier, but it paid them back in return. And eventually, when Steve decided that the others trusted it enough, he named it: Storm. They now had a baby Ender Dragon with them, coming on their adventures.
=== Chapter 9: The Enchanting ===
Finally, they found what they were looking for. The compass and the other device pointed right to it. It was a floating island above all the rest, with a strange stone that looked like it was enchanted like a tool. Steve faintly remembered seeing one when exploring... a long time before... what was it? He had found on in the Overworld, he remembered. How could one be in the End? Were they in all three dimensions? He had so many questions, but held them in as he took a pearl to throw up to the island. The others did to. 
Steve held Storm, who still didn’t know how to fly, as he teleported, and they came on top of the island. There were some Amber Trees and crystals, and a lot of that strange, enchanted stone... Wait! That was what it was called! Enchanted Stone. He didn’t know the name of the island, but he knew and remembered the stone. 
The others also seemed to be confused, so he spoke. “That stone is Enchanted Stone.” He said. “I found one of these islands in the Overworld once while exploring, and it had a lot of that stuff. I remember the Stone, but not what the island is called, if it’s called anything.”
“What does Enchanted Stone do?” Jessica wondered. “Is it magical or anything?” Steve tried to remember. “Well, yes.” He said, breaking the stone. Out of it came an oak log, a piece of Chorusonium, and a few small orbs that went into Steve. They also all started to levitate a bit. “I think Enchanted Stone is like this: it gives you a bunch of random things when broken, including a log, a mineral, and I think an effect, which is why we’re all levitating.” They then plunged back down to the floor. 
“Let’s look around,” said Pete. “See if we can find what to do next.” They looked around, and all came to the center. In there, there were two things. A floating orb, and a board with some pictures and writing. Steve and Pete immediately started looking at the board, and Jessica picked up the orb, throwing it into the air. It floated, and she jumped to grab it down. “A floating orb!” She said. “I’ll go experiment with it a bit, maybe see what it can do,” Steve was too busy looking at the board, figuring out what they really needed to do.
So the orb was magical. It could float by itself in midair, nothing holding it up. But how magical was it? What could it really do? Let’s try throwing it at things, Jessica thought. First the ground, then maybe a person with permission. The took the orb and threw it at the Endstone. Nothing really happened at firsrm but for a second, the stone turned that enchanted color, for a second it turned into Enchanted Stone. Next, we’ll throw at at something alive, she thought. Pete and Steve were busy and hadn’t given her permission to throw an enchanted orb at them, and she didn’t want to throw it at any Endermen either. 
So she pearled to a nearby island, which was a crystal plain with Amber trees. A few Leaf Crawlers were walking around, and she chose the closet one to experiment on. Taking the orb and throwing it, she watched something amazing happen. The Leaf Crawler appeared to become enchanted. It then roared, and charged at her, not normal behavior for one of those passive lumbering creatures. She quickly took out her axe, attacking it back. How was this happening? She was in a fight with a Leaf Crawler. 
Not wanting to continue to fight, she grabbed the orb and threw an Ender Pearl to the Enchanted Island or whatever it was called. Pete and Steve were still looking at the board, but stopped when they heard the sound of a pearl. “The orb,” she said. “I threw it at the ground, and for a second it turned into Enchanted Stone. I threw it at a Leaf Crawler... and it attacked me.” Steve just nodded, as if that was normal, which it was compared to everything else that had happened. “Well we think we know what to look for next,” Pete said. 
=== Chapter 10: Continuing On ===
So, after Steve explained basically what they had to do to Jessica, they continued once again. She didn’t completely understand it, but this time they had to use the islands and how they worked to help them find what they were looking for, which they were almost sure was an End City. None of them knew much about that, but Steve knew it was a large, almost floating tower where the Elytra could sometimes be found. Those could be very helpful on their journey, but it probably wasn’t what they were looking for. Storm, who could now keep up, followed them.
As they went on, Pete began to worry more about Herobrine. He hadn’t shown himself since the monument, but he had to be in the End by now. So where was he? What was he doing? Why hadn’t they seen him? The villager suspected that him and his army were looking for a separate cube, the other one. The three of them had three cubes:
* From Ironstand,
* From the Stronghold,
* And from the Hunter Fortress.
Herobrine had two:
* From somewhere in the Nether,
* And from the Monument, from the ocean.
There were two left. Both in the End. So Pete decided that Herobrine was probably looking for the other one, he might have it by now and would be coming to interfere... but they continued exploring, and Herobrine didn’t appear during the time it took to find a small End City. It didn’t have a ship, but that was probably not what they were looking for. They approached the building, leaving Storm behind this time as not to endanger him. 
At the entrance were two purple box-like creatures that opened up their shells and sent out small pellets that followed them around. Even Steve didn’t really know about these, and the others seemed to sense that, as they didn’t ask him. A pellet hit Pete, and he started floating up into the air, grabbing on to a piece of that purple stone to keep from going higher, and the other two fought off the things. Inside, there were even more, but now they were in an enclosed space and didn’t need to worry as much about levitating. The player shot at one with a bow-they had lost their guns when they were rifted to the End- and it closed its shell, so he shot again through the crack.
Meanwhile, Jessica let herself get hit by a pellet so she could levitate up to the next floor, hitting the box things on the way. She found a chest, and opened it to see some enchanted tools and armor. Taking out a green-colored chestplate, she showed it to Pete, and he did the same thing, levitating up to the top. “Do you know this material?” She asked, showing him the chestplate. “No,” he replied as Steve came up. “I don’t either.” He said when he got there, “but this chest has some good loot.” He swapped out some of his Netherite gear for enchanted diamond, putting it into the chest in case the others wanted it. “Yeah, this has some really good stuff,” Jessica said as she compared two sets of diamond enchanted boots.
They then came up to a different room, fighting some more. They were pushed out into an open area, which was a lot more dangerous when they were fighting things that could levitate them. “Don’t forget what we’re here for!” Steve yelled to them as he grabbed a piece of Endstone to keep from going higher. “Even if we don’t completely know.” The others agreed, and levitated up to another part of the small End City that was still very big. They were almost at the top, where the thing they were looking for probably was. Pete jumped into the path of a pellet to get up to the top, and there it was. There was a rift floating above, and he was floating towards it, reaching towards it... and was rifted away.
=== Chapter 11: The Orb’s Use ===
The three of them were rifted into a plain of Bleeding crystals and trees. An End City was in the distance, and a small stone brick ruin around an acid pool lay close by. They all immediately turned to the End City a few islands away. “I think we should go there,” Steve said. “Even if it’s not what we’re looking for, that’s a big one, with more loot and hopefully elytra. Elytra could really come in handy here.” “Let’s go,” the others both said, Jessica picking up Storm-they now all trusted him-and they started going. This time, the baby dragon would come with them, helping them in the City.
They came in, and Storm was surprisingly good at fighting those things. They would levitate the dragon, but he would sort of resist and could control the levitation, flying and hitting them until it wore off. He really was helping. They soon got to the first chest, and found a pickaxe, horse armor, and a diamond chestplate with blast protection, thorns, and... mending! Pete took it, and they continued up, fighting their way to the ship where they would find the elytra... and possibly their other reward, whether it was the cube, or something to help find the cube. 
Eventually, they got to the top, and the ship was in sight. They each took a pearl, and threw it up, taking Storm with them. On the ship were more of those box creatures, and they fought them along with the dragon, being very careful of the Void below. Pete almost fell, but grabbed onto the edge and pearled back on, and they continued fighting the creatures. When they were all done with that, the three of them came to the edge of the ship to find their reward. The Elytra. Surrounded by chests full of good loot, even Netherite- how was there Netherite in the End? They took it, and Steve took the Elytra from the frame and put it on his back. “I’ll try it,” he said. “But in a better place, not over the Void.” 
“Yes, you should try them first,” Pete replied. “But let’s get back to the island.” They each threw a pearl, and came down, the Elytra on Steve’s back. Then, they realized something. “The cube,” Jessica suddenly said. “Or whatever we’re looking for. It wasn’t there.” 
“You’re right,” Steve said. “What about that stone brick ruin we found earlier? Let’s check that.” 
NOTICE: Withering Heights has been moved to its own website. To read the rest of part 4 and beyond, go to https://badowie.wordpress.com/continuation-of-withering-heights-part-4-the-end or https://badowie.wordpress.com/stories-hub and whatever else you want to see. 
Category:Stories
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Category:Withering Heights