Operation: Nightfall 4 - Occurrence

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<< Part 3
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This really was it. This was the final fight of Minecraft. The fight to probably end all fights.
"Mortals! Let us not delay this anymore! Let's FIGHT!" Archbane snarled as he rose into the air, his sword floating into his right hand. With a clean swing in the air, he sent an arc of fire down on us. Being surprised by the sudden flash of fire, I stumbled backwards and nearly fell, while Towaka rolled to the side. 
“Well that stinks. He’s in the air.” I groaned.
“We have bows.” Towaka simply snickered as he took out two sets of bow and arrows. Quickly throwing one set to me, he took aim and fired three at Archbane. Unfortunately, Archbane simply dodged all of them swiftly. 
This was not going to be a very balanced fight. 
“Oh, you’re struggling, is it?” Archbane mockingly floated down. “I guess I will fight fairly. But don’t expect me to be merciful once you lose.” 
I tilted my bow to the side. A flash of text rendered for a moment, telling me it was enchanted with Punch V. This gave me an idea.
“ARCHBANE!” I roared, barely loud enough to be heard over the crackling wildfire. With all the debris and dead wood around us, it was starting to spread alarmingly quickly. When he turned to look at me, a crooked smile visible on his face, Towaka flung an axe into his shoulder with surprising brutality. A crunch told us it connected with bone as he visibly staggered and nearly dropped out of the air to the ground. I wasted no time in notching an arrow, aiming and firing it his way. It connected, and the entity was blown back to smash into a weeping willow, branches crunching and screaming as the old behemoth fell over, our enemy tangled in its branches.
“Well, that was unexpected.” I muttered.
“Quick! Don’t let your guard down! Get your bo-”
Towaka had already pulled out another axe, but before he could do anything with it a colossal explosion ripped through the ground, tearing out blades of grass by the roots and lifting dust in a mile wide circle. The willow imploded into a ball of fire, accompanied by a dangerous whistling sound as something flew our way. I barely brought out my shield and lifted it to my head when the axe from before careened into it, shattering the cover. It split the shield right down the middle, the tip of the blade hovering an inch away from my face. I could feel its handle still quivering where it landed.
“What in the fuck……” I lowered the axe-shield mess and looked in front of me. And I saw him again.
Archbane looked mighty pissed as he rose almost magistically out of the rubble. This time, he was really, REALLY fucking mad, and I could see a visible orange aura around him. In fact, I could even feel the heat from the aura itself. Seeing him rise was quite terrifying, but at the same time, satisfying? No, this wasn’t the time to think about that. I pulled the axe out of the broken shield and threw it to the side. That for sure wasn’t going to work anymore against his attacks. 
Towaka and I readied ourselves, still determined to try and fight Archbane, but inside, I felt fairly uneasy. 
“It doesn’t matter!” My voice was quiet, so quiet against the screams of the wildfires before us. “Even if you’re more powerful than us, we will still fi-” 
I heard a loud slam from my side. Jolting my head around, Towaka was gone, as if he was never there. Less than a second later I heard a loud explosion, and I saw him afar lying injured against a tree. Guess Archbane must have kicked him. He got to his feet but he was clearly badly injured, by the way he was shaking and stumbling.
“TOWAKA!” I yelled. I heard a whistle through the air as Archbane tried to slam down his blade on me, but I deftly dodged to the side. I swung my axe from behind my back onto Archbane, but he simply teleported away. I overshot and nearly fell over.
“Ah god damnit! Where are you?” I slammed the handle of my axe into the ground and looked around, fuming. 
“Behind you, Idiot.”
Archbane reappeared behind me, as he simply kicked me in the back. I was launched backwards, and coincidentally skidded right down at Towaka’s feet. His upside down face stared at me in confusion.
“Well fuck.” I muttered.
“Not…..yet.” Towaka smiled as he brought out a healing potion. He splashed it down and most of our wounds were healed. I readied myself with my axe while Towaka prepared his bow. We faced Archbane, who was clearly fuming. 
“You two, just won’t die won’t you?” He growled.
“Not until we destroy you, that's for sure.” We snickered.
Archbane scowled and swung his blade in our direction, but then we deftly took out our ender pearls and threw them in different directions. With a “schoop”, I teleported about 30 blocks away from Archbane, and I snickered a little hearing him scream from frustration. I then readied my bow, and fired a barrage of arrows at Archbane. 
“What in the- “ Archbane stuttered as he found his chest being pierced by a bunch of arrows. 
And as I was running to him, Towaka suddenly appeared in front of Archbane with a TNT, and flint and steel ready. Taking advantage of Archbane’s shock, he planted the TNT right in front of him and lit it.
“Quick! Run!” Towaka screamed. I wasted no time as we ran side by side away from the explosion. It took about three seconds before we heard a massive “KABOOM” behind us. Turning behind, a large mushroom cloud appeared from where Archbane was, and it was clear the explosion had dealt tons of damage. 
“Did…...did we win?” I gaped at the huge cloud of smoke that was still rising up.
“Not, yet.” Towaka sternly readied his sword. 
And as we stared, we saw Archbane again, fairly injured with burn and blood marks. Only this time, he was truly mad. He stumbled towards us with surprising speed, only stopping about 10 blocks away from us. He was breathing heavily, his eyes flaring with intense rage, enough to set an entire grass plain on fire. 
And out of nowhere, he launched into an angry monologue.
“You know what? I am so fucking tired, and I mean. FUCKING. TIRED. OF THE TWO OF YOU. All I ever fucking wanted was to take over this fucking game and have it for all myself. It was all because of Phoenix that we could have fucking succeeded. We could have. BUT NO. YOU TWO FUCKING BLOODY IDIOTS HAVE TO RUIN EVERYTHING WE FUCKING DO. WE WERE SO FUCKING CLOSE TO OUR GOAL AND YET THIS FUCKING SON OF A BITCH RUINED IT. YOU TWO, BURN IN FUCKING HELL. I REPEAT. JUST. BURN. IN. FUCKING. HELL!!!” 
And suddenly, he teleported away again.
“I didn’t even consent to be on their side…...where is he?” I shuddered.
“Not that I know. But be prepared, he could be anywhe-”
**SLICE** 
A blade was swung at both our stomachs, leaving a huge gash. I coughed out a bit of blood. Archbane teleported in front of us, revealing himself. We didn't even have time to respond or ready our weapons.
“Today is your end. GOODBYE.” 
He charged up a huge ball of energy and chucked it at us. As it approached us faster and faster and faster, we knew we just couldn’t do anything. 
**BOOM!**
A huge explosion rocked the entire world. Both Towaka and I were blasted into a nearby hill and I could feel my bones cracking in many different ways. Once the explosion settled, it was very clear we were both severely injured. We were lying down on the ground, defeated. All of our armour and weapons were completely destroyed, or flung in different directions, and we had run out of any supplies. Not even any healing potions. Towaka had sustained several burn marks and a stab to the stomach from earlier, while I had multiple fractures on my arms, legs, and blood was leaking from my mouth. 
“Fuck…...Towaka. Do you have anything else?” I muttered. I never expected the fight to end so soon like this, and it was clear we were going to pass out from blood loss if we didn’t have any healing potions. 
“Nope.” Towaka tilted his head and frowned, looking weirdly calm about being stabbed.
And then, the last thing we saw was Archbane with his devilish smile before us, and then, we fell into a……..
…….
……
……
……
“Wake up. Your conversion is about to come soon.”
I woke up alongside Towaka. We were back in that shitty prison cell again, but a different one. This time, I saw those weird grey coloured people again. But it wasn’t just them. As I peered through the jail bars, I saw some prisoners too that were being handcuffed and led by those weird grey people. Some of them were crying as they walked past us, and I shuddered.
“Towaka, I’m scared. We aren’t going to be recruited into his army are we?” 
“I……think we are. Oh.” Towaka shook his head. He still looked ridiculously calm in spite of how everything was going.
I decided not to question it, turning to squint at some of the prisoners. Most of them appeared lost, looking around with wide eyes. Others seemed sad or fearful - a few tears here and there, some who just hung their head in defeat. One of the prisoners was thrashing furiously, kicking out at any guards who tried to go near them. A greyscale loomed over from behind with a wooden sword, and I quickly looked away.
Notably though, we weren’t handcuffed this time. Before I could figure out some way of using that to our advantage though, the jail door slammed open with a resounding thud, making the entire cell shake. Dust scattered down from the ceiling. Three grayscale stood at the head of our room, two of them with handcuffs at the ready, the third with a diamond sword in their hand. Their eyes were trained on us.
I swallowed. “Fine.”
We let ourselves be cuffed. They shoved us into the back of the line, and as more prisoners joined us from behind, I noticed they were leading a large possession of players to… somewhere. It was impossible to tell in a place like this, I didn’t even know if we were above ground or not.
But what I did know was that the ground was sloping upwards. I wasn’t a big fan of climbing a hill, but the greyscales had other plans. I could only keep walking as the tip of the sword poked into my back. I could hear the soft whines and cries of the prisoners as we continued walking up, and up.
And up, and up, and up. 
And finally, the possession stopped. 
“I think we’re here…” I mumbled. Towaka was frowning at the ceiling instead of straight ahead though, as if noticing something off about it.
“Do you hear skittering?”
“What?”
Then I heard a creak. It seemed like a set of doors were being opened, as I saw a slight glimmer of light. The row then abruptly continued moving forward, and the light grew brighter and brighter as we finally stepped through into what seemed to be a massive room. Netherite laced the walls and met in a starburst in the ceiling, interlaced with gold and redstone trims. The resonance of several hundred feet clattering on polished blackstone echoed through the hall. I will admit, it looked like a church, but we were far from receiving salvation. 
“So this is the place……” I muttered. A greyscale sternly stared at me and I jolted back, out of slight fear. Towaka on the other hand was strangely calm throughout and I did not hear anything from him at all.
As soon as all of the prisoners had entered the room, I heard the doors shut, and everyone fell silent. Dual braziers lit up, guarding a massive throne to our right. It just so happened that the person sitting on it was Archbane himself, as he got up and cleared his throat.
“Hello everyone. I hope you all are having a splendid day.” He flashed his teeth, which was something I did not need to see today. They were multilayered, like a shark’s.
“Before we begin this conversion, I just want to thank all my helpers, my beloved greyscales who have helped me collect as many players as possible.” None of the greyscales made any sort of acknowledgement of the praise, remaining where they were. I saw one of them turn to me, as if Archbane’s praise was actually a commandment.
“No one will be spared. Begin.”
The spell was broken, and the greyscales started to chatter among themselves. Moments later, the row started moving again, and I knew shit was about to get real. 
The line was pressing closer and closer to the base of the steps leading up to the throne. And Archbane himself? I couldn’t be sure, but I could’ve sworn I saw his hand glowing with some strange blue aura. I did not want to think about it so much, but deep down I knew the route of being brainwashed and forgetting all those who I knew was inevitable. 
“First person.”
The row stopped in front of Archbane. I carefully, sneakily tilted my body a little to see what was happening at the front of the row. 
The greyscales forced the first player onto the stage. One of them kicked him in the knees, and I winced as he was forced to kneel. Archbane waved at the greyscales to have them back off, and placed that glowing blue hand right on the player’s head. The blue aura stayed on his hand, but it instantaneously moved into the player just as it made contact. And the player let out a huge scream that was made a thousand times worse by the way it ricocheted off the walls.
I shivered. This was not pretty at all. And both me and Towaka were going to experience this.
The next thing, I saw the player walk off to the right, Only that this time, they were devoid of any colour, and they walked in a robotic manner to the rest of the greyscales on the right.
The greyscales pushed the second one into place, likewise forcing them to kneel. Scream. Devoid. 
And the third. 
And the fourth.
And so on.
I could only feel my heart pounding as I approached closer and closer to Archbane. All around me, the prisoners were starting to panic as some strained against their bindings but were forced to stand down. I was praying for at least something to happen, but I knew that was not going to happen at all. Maybe this truly was the end, this truly would be the last I’d see of the real world, and the last I’d see of my friends, my family, before I’d be turned into one of those……
“NEXT!” The voice was like a knife, slicing through the air. My head snapped up as something kicked me in the back.
It was my turn. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes as I stepped forward. I refused to kneel, but the kick hit me nonetheless, and I fell onto my knees in pain. Archbane was starting to look bored with the process, having rushed the last few prisoners, but upon seeing my face his expression switched to one of amusement. 
“Silly little bird. Can’t fly now with your wings extinguished, can you?”
I saw the blue aura glow, wrapping around his hand. I shut my eyes tightly as I braced for the worst.
Goodbye Towaka. Goodbye everyone.
**BOOM**
The ground tilted. I opened my eyes as the building rumbled. Archbane was frozen, looking up at the ceiling in confusion and… disgust?
**BOOM!** 
Yet another explosion occurred, but I could see the source this time. The flash of TNT was seen momentarily before debris and people were sent scattering everywhere. The grim ritual instantly turned into an emergency evacuation - the greyscales seem to have lost their source of command, and were scattering like mice, disorganised and rampant. Archbane was roaring incoherent orders at them, completely forgetting about me and the rest of his prisoners.
“Hey! Phoenix!” I felt a small tug on my hand, and Towaka was there, staring at me and pointing at the doors. 
“Oh. Oh yeah, we gotta get ou-” 
Something was screaming, but it wasn’t a person. I watched as one of the great blackstone pillars collapsed forwards, shattering against the ground in front of the only exit. Stone, gold and redstone fragments exploded, embedding themselves in the ground, the walls, and in people. I yanked Towaka out of the way as a chunk of pure gold fell from the ceiling and nearly crushed him into paste.
Not even giving a moment to breathe, the entire ceiling collapsed inward. In the midst of the dust storm that fell down, I felt something grab my wrists. I tried to twist away, but whatever it was had a grip as hard as diamond. There was a loud crack, and the pressure of the metal handcuffs was suddenly lifted.
“Up,” a voice growled, inches away from my ear. The shadowy figure disappeared back into the chaos.
I was going to look for Towaka, but Archbane’s voice suddenly pierced through the din. “ROUND THEM ALL UP, ALL OF THEM! KILL THEM IF YOU HAVE TO!”
A small laser beam flew my way - I barely missed it by a hair. I knew that this was the sign to get out. I rushed roughly to where I thought the centre of the room was - sure enough, there was a canopy of vines that was still growing rapidly. I didn’t have time to question where it was coming from - I grabbed on and hauled myself up.
The air started to clear the higher up I went, and I could breathe a little easier. Someone’s hand waved in front of my face - in full colour, not greyscale - and I grabbed it gratefully. They hauled me up, and I saw the rugged player turn their deep brown eyes to the other survivors pulling themselves up. He was wearing an armband that had clearly seen better days, but underneath all the dirt and grime I could still see its distinct blue. I glanced around, and with a start I saw Towaka among the group of rescuers with these armbands - he was helping bonemeal the roots of the vines to send more rescue ladders down.
“That’s enough - I can’t see anymore coming up.” A hoarse voice wheezed behind me. Whirling around, I blanched at seeing their face - covered with burn marks and scars. “Burn them.” 
One of the rescuers struck a flint and steel against the vines, and they quickly caught ablaze. 
“...Now what?” I asked quietly, to no one in particular.
The one who hauled me up before turned to look at me, tilting his head.
“Well, unless you want to get caught, you should probably run.”
Both Towaka and I slid down from the roof onto some hay bales the ground crew left for us. We had to quickly jump out of the way as the others followed suit - both rescuers and other escaped prisoners alike. Once everyone was down, we wasted no time in fleeing - not even removing the hay bales. As the scenery flashed past us, we finally stopped near a forest. 
Towaka stumbled towards the nearest tree and leaned heavily against it, half choking for air. I put my hands on my legs as I struggled to catch my breath as well.
A gentle tap on my head prompted me to look up, seeing one of the rescuers offering me a bottle of water. I graciously accepted it and almost inhaled half of the bottle in one go. I drank the rest more slowly.
“Wow, goodness you guys. That was intense.”
“Yeah!” Towaka’s voice was hoarse, but he sounded okay at least. He was also drinking water, swirling the bottle whilst looking out at the horizon where we ran from. “I was really really scared for a moment.”
“Is everyone alright?” 
“Yeah we are, at least we’re away from them now.”
I sat down near a tree to regain my consciousness, sipping the last of the water. Sure, I was certain that I did not bring any supplies with me as a result of being too caught up in the chase, but I knew that at least we were safe now. I saw the other prisoners sitting around us on the grass, either panting or just smiling, grateful that they were finally out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the person who had saved us again. He was shambling towards the group, hands in pockets, though his eyes were noticeably still darting around as though Archbane were to peel out of the trees any second.
“So, now that we’re here, we should probably set up camp.” For his rugged appearance, he was surprisingly soft spoken. Giving a small bow before all of the newcomers, he continued. “My name is Xyron. I am one of the resistance members against Archbane - specifically, our Captain.”
I almost choked on my water. Resistance members? A whole faction? How did they even know about Archbane? I glanced at Towaka's way, but he also seemed as confused as I was. We genuinely thought this was just something that only we knew about. Though to be fair, the rest of the world found out about him ever since the news came out. We were the only ones alive with deeper intel however. But at the same time, I was relieved that we weren’t alone in this fight. 
Xyron nodded behind us, and turning around I saw some players unloading supplies from a few shulker boxes. “Thankfully, I’ve managed to steal a bit of supplies as we came along the way. We are far enough to safely set up camp, and tomorrow we can return to our headquarters.” 
“And you, Phoenix and Towaka, I think you’d come in handy.” I jumped at the sudden mention of my name. The captain was staring at both of us, as if he knew us already.
Towaka frowned at his now empty bottle. “About that...” He looked up to properly make eye contact with Xyron. “Yeah, we were the ones.”
“Well, I’d think you two know the best about him,” he smiled thinly. Behind his tough outer appearance, inside was just a person tired of all the fighting. “Come on, it is late. Let's head into the forest so we can set up camp there.” Xyron gestured towards the trees, and the group of us headed inside for the night.
As the sun slowly set, the group busied themselves with setting up the tents for us to rest. Campfires were set up, wild meat left out to cook. When the moon rose, we were done preparing our tents and it was time for us to sleep. I prepared my bed and just as I was about to hit the sack, Xyron suddenly appeared and called out to me.
“Hey Phoenix, would you mind if I speak to you and Towaka for a while?” His voice remained soft spoken - difficult to read, though not impossible. I could detect the urgency.
“Oh. sure.” I responded, looking around. “Towaka, Xyron wants to speak to both of us.”
Towaka appeared instantly just as I called out to him, stepping right out of the shadows. He had an axe slung over his back. “What is it?”
“I have spoken of this earlier, but yes, I know you two are the players who have faced Archbane before. As such, I believe I can trust the two of you. Would you mind describing to me his weaknesses, if any? And how did you defeat him?” 
I stayed silent for a while. I had known this question was coming, but it was going to take a long time to explain. I took a deep breath.
“Well, it was really not by our own strength but Jeb’s. Apparently, Entity 303 had corrupted me, and Towaka had to stop me by fighting me of course, but he also had some help from Jeb as he gave Towaka some sort of coded power.” I rambled.
“I don’t know for sure if we are able to retrieve the power again, since I don’t think we can contact Jeb from here,” Towaka continued for me. “But fighting Archbane himself with just weapons could be the only thing we can do.”
We alternated between explaining some of the finer details of what we’ve found. At the end of it all, Xyron only gave a small nod of acknowledgement, seemingly deep in thought.
“I see. I see. Well, we should rest tomorrow. We’ll plan an attack in about three days.” His eyes flickered over the trees again. “I… somewhat know what to do, but I think you two can also help me.”
“So, with that in mind…  would you be willing to help lead this group alongside me? I think you would know best.”
Towaka and I glanced at each other. “We’ll try,” I finally answered.
With all the things that happened today, I dozed off just as instantly as I laid down in my tend. It was tiring…
======
“Damn.” Archbane was at his office, shaking his head and looking down on his table. His massive row of greyscales stood before him, expressionless, though some clearly looked uneasy.
“Are you FUCKING kidding me guys? One second of me not paying attention or giving you orders, and you guys become outright fucking useless. Seriously? You let some prisoners escape and be able to fucking call for help, while others got killed or you just decided to not save them so I can brainwash them? Instead all of you run around in fucking circles! Simply pathetic. ” Archbane slammed his angry fist down on the table, causing it to slightly dent inwards. He stepped forward, looked at one of the greyscales, and out of nowhere, grabbed their head and pushed them to the ground forcefully.
The others watched. Some winced a little, others just turned to look at the commotion, but most of them were the same thing. Emotionless, and just continued staring forward.
“Heh, you know what? I don’t even need you guys.” Archbane snarled.
He stepped out of his office into the dark hallway, smirking, flashing that set of sharp teeth once again.
“Once I’m done with them, I’ll be done with these stupid greyscales too. Those 2. Once they are under my rule, I shall TRULY rule this world, without the need for anyone’s help.
“Watch out, Phoenix and Towaka.”
“Just you WAIT…….”
Category:Long Pastas