MCSM Stories

Aetherman (8)

"Let's get back up and find Ivor." Petra said.

"Right." I nodded, putting the relic into my inventory.

Just when we were at the way to the top, a deafening crack sounded from above, leaving my ears ringing.

"What the-!?" Jesse didn't finish his sentence before a large rock, or piece of the wall, came tumbling down. After it came more.

"The temple's collapsing!" Petra exclaimed.

"How are we going to get out!?" I asked frantically.

"The way we came." Jesse was looking at the vines.

"Jesse, are you CRAZY!?" Petra yelled at him.

"It's the only way out!" Jesse retorted.

While they were fighting, I had already started up the vines.

"Less talking more moving!" I said to them.

They both looked at me funny for a second before following my lead up the vines. It was pretty terrifying, with rocks falling from above, threatening to hit you and either kill you from the impact or make you fall to your death. Petra was already ahead of me, and I did my best to hurry after her, to look down at Jesse, who was struggling. With his burnt arm, it made climbing more difficult. I waited a minute for him to catch up.

"What are you guys doing!?" Petra called from above, who was on a ledge close to the top where a wall used to be.

"I'm fine." I heard Jesse mutter under his breath as I grabbed him.

I knew now there was a higher risk of both of us dying, but I had to try. One arm holding Jesse and the other latched onto the vines, I made my way up as quickly as I could. Jesse tried to protest, but now wasn't the time to complain about me doing all the work for him. I looked down to freeze up for a moment when I saw how far from the ground we were. That moment of freezing nearly cost us our lives. I looked up again to see Petra let out a yelp and getting to higher ground as one of the most terrifying thing in my life happened. RIght above me, the piece of wall gave way, the large piece of stone falling towards the both of us.

"LEFT!" I heard Jesse screech.

I didn't have time to react. In the blink of an eye, Jesse struggled out of my grasp, practically leaping from a farther part of a wall, dragging him with me. The rock missed us by a few inches. Jesse started to climb again before nearly falling from a smaller rock hitting him, so I grabbed him again and made it up.

Petra was there to take Jesse onto the ledge with her, and when I was going to crawl up, the piece of stone gave way under me, pulling me into the hole with it.

"Lukas!" I felt a hand grab me (painfully) by the hair before it pulled me up. I felt solid ground under me, and I scrabbled to the part of the floor that actually wasn't about to fall apart under me.

"Is.. everyone... alright?" I heard Petra pant.

"Aside from getting a rock to the face, I'm fine." Jesse replied.

"Heights..." I muttered. I looked up. "Where's Ivor!"

"GUYS!" I saw Ivor run into the temple, Yes, from the entrance and not from the upper floor, his face white.

"What?" Jesse asked him.

"There was this... beast! A large, black one! I didn't get catch a proper glimpse of it, but it has these wings! And... And tail!" Ivor sounded frantic.

Jesse's eyes grew wide, and I knew why.

"...Enderman?" I questioned.

"It fired this... beam! At the temple!" Ivor continued. "It's gone now, but I thought you were done for."

Jesse staggered back, eyes widened. I stood up.

"...That has to be an Enderman." He muttered.

"I thought they were all dead!" Petra exclaimed.

"Well, apparently not!" Ivor retorted.

I was going to say something, but I felt a burning pain across my body, dull at first, but becoming more and more painful. I knew that the change was coming.

"I need... to go somewhere else." I squeaked, stumbling past them towards the temple's ruined entrance.

"Lukas, wait-" Petra started.

"I'll be back! Probably!" I called as I was outside.

I turned to the left, hurrying into the jungle undergrowth out of sight. I really didn't want them to see the changes first-hand. As soon as I reached a clearing far away enough, I let myself collapse to the ground. As usual, my vision blurred and the pain grew stronger, but strangely, it didn't hurt as much as the other times. Still, I couldn't help but let out a scream, or more accurately a roar as it happened. Not a second too soon, the pain faded, and I was left there as a feathered beast.

I sat up, looking at my surroundings. All of my senses were heightened. I could see every single leaf on the trees that towered over me clearly. I could hear the faintest rustling of an ocelot stalking its prey.

I could smell blood. Ender blood.

I jumped to my feet on all fours and glanced around, emitting a menacing growl out of instinct. I could hear the beating of wings in the distance. The sane part of me was terrified. I haven't had the best experience with Endermen. But the instinctual part of me wanted to go after it. To kill it.

Flicking my tail, I got on all fours, keeping my stomach close to the ground as I crept towards the scent. In the back of my mind I knew that I should keep close to my friends so that I wouldn't get lost, but my instincts didn't want any of that. The foul stench grew stronger, and I knew I was close. Then, I could feel his voice fill my head.

"Now that those Demigods and humans have been eliminated, I can finally gather those shards with no obstacles." The statement was followed by unsettling laughter.

It was Eerste.

I shrank back into the undergrowth. But, then I crept forward, peering over the undergrowth to see him. It was the same Ender that dropped me in the True End, but he looked a lot worse than I remembered. He was so skinny that I could count his ribs, and he had scars all over his body that I was sure he didn't have before. His chest was ripped open, exposing a glowing blue-green orb. His bright green eyes gleamed with a sadistic hate.

My mind fought with itself to either run back and somehow warn my friends or attack. Of course my instincts decided attack. With a roar, I leapt out of the bushes straight towards him, claws outstretched. Just before I slammed into him, he was gone I landed on the ground on all fours, hissing and all of the feathers on my back standing on end. I whirled around and jumped away just in time to avoid a energy beam made by the Ender, and I looked up to see him hovering there, eyes bright with surprise and anger.

"Aetherman!" he screeched. " will strike you down!"

With that, he fired another beam. I got out of the way just in time, but I heard a loud crack and I glanced behind me to see one of the wall jungle trees falling. I easily dodged it. Getting onto two legs, I jumped into the air, higher than I could ever imagine. I stretched out my arm, clawing right at his chest. I landed a hit, leaving a scrape mark on the orb in his chest. He physically let out a screech of agony, falling back to the ground and clutching his chest. I landed on all fours, crouching down and letting out a hiss.

"You will pay for this!" he screamed into my mind before taking flight again into the air.

I tried to jump up after him, but it was no use. He was already too sat away. I paced around, watching him disappear into the sky.

I sat down, coming back to my senses. I was trembling, taking deep breaths. Eerste was alive. In the overworld. He was the one to make them temple crumble. And now he knew about me, and the shards.

"Lukas?" I heard Petra's voice call. I looked up, catching their scent, which seemed familiar even though I've never smelled it before.

I took one last deep breath. I needed to warn them of Eerste as soon as possible.