AN:
Finally the next chapter. (I'm sorry it's late. I give you guys full permission to write comments asking me to get the next chapter out after a week and a half.) More or less a continuation of the last chapter.
I've also had a work on AO3 that I had set to anonymous that I've recently made un-anonymous that is an au about the civil war in season 6 if your looking for some nostalgia (after you read this chapter though of course.) I will also put it into Wattpad if someone wants it on.
End AN
When the vault opened, Impulse expected to see chests full of mycelium. There was not a single chest inside when the door opened.
Grian rushed in front of Impulse and Etho before stopping at the entrance of the vault. Impulse looked over Grian's head to see inside.
The room was filled with grass with a single piece of mycelium. Impulse can barely make out a sign reading "the last piece of mycelium" on the side of the mycelium.
All of a sudden Grian fell. Paying closer attention to the room, Impulse noticed some type of armor laying on the ground that Grian was focusing on.
The armor reminded him of something but he could think of what it could be. Actually, now that Impulse was thinking of it, how would you get armor like that in the first place? It seems to be almost a combination of armor you can get from Hub and armor that you can craft.
Armor created in Hub is the only type of armor that can go through portals but always ends up losing all its protection. The Hub armor is, for the most part, the only armor that looks different than the default crafting armor.
Crafted armor actually does protect people. No one knows exactly why or how it works but if you get hit by an arrow in Hub armor, you would feel a ton of pain compared to crafted armor that seems to absorb part of the damage.
Admins might know because crafted armor was created by older admins, who knows how long ago, so there could be some type of protection.
"Grian? Are you alright?" Impulse asked. Grian didn't even react to him.
"Does he do this often?" Ethos asked, walking around Grian into the room. Impulse walked in behind him and looked down at Grian only to see slightly dazed and unfocused eyes.
"No. I've never seen this happen before and unless this happened the first week that Grian and Ren were hippies, Ren most likely hasn't seen this happen either. If this has happened before, Mumbo would be the one to most likely see it," Impulse answered.
Etho walked up to the mycelium in the center of the room, reading the sign.
"All of this for one piece," Ethos grabbed the mycelium revealing an observer underneath.
A few seconds later Impulse heard TNT exploding outside the vault. The two rushed out to see a giant hole in the back wall of the factory revealing tons of mycelium scattered from exploded shulker boxes and more shulker boxes sitting full of mycelium.
A constant ticking was playing of broken redstone caused by the explosion, stopping whatever purpose it was meant to be used for. Judging by the fact that there was TNT inside of it, mostly to explode the mycelium.
The two gathered the mycelium and took as much as they could. They would need to have Grian take the rest.
Etho turned around before pausing. He pulled his mask slightly down and took a deep breath through his nose before turning to Impulse. "Do you smell that?"
Impulse took a deep breath before freezing. A few minutes ago the air had a strong scent of gunpowder from the TNT. That scent was now being overtaken by a strong rancid stench. The rancid stench was different from that of a zombie in how strong it was.
Then they heard a scream.
Grian.
They rushed into the vault to see Grian kneeling over himself. Or what looks to be a decaying arm.
Grian reached out grabbing a… knife? How did someone get a knife through a portal? Who even has a knife like that?
(Line Skip)
The arm wasn't new. Everything about it shows that it's been a while since Zee was killed. Judging by how the traps work to even get into the vault, whoever put it inside had to do it before it got sealed.
Grian looked over the entirety of the items laying on the floor. He was just about to stand up until he noticed a metallic glint catch his eyes.
Grian reached and grabbed onto it. After seeing what he was holding, he froze.
How did he miss it?
How did he miss it?
How did he miss it?!
Zee never had any weapons. Especially a dagger.
He used potions to fight. He built traps. He'd rather use his fists than a sword.
The bloodstained iron dagger with his items was not his.
The worst part is… he knew who it belonged to.
The slightly curved blade of the dagger and the broken heart symbol embedded into the end of the handle only belong to one person.
One falina.
Yuki.
The falina who is known for killing her exes and the ones who decline her love for them. The one who when she has a boyfriend, she will kill anyone for them.
His girlfriend.
So many questions fill Grian's head along with fear.
How did she get here? In general, because the only way from Ardonia to anywhere else is through the End.
If she's here, who else is?
How did she find them?
How many more are there?
Yuki ended up being in a high rank the last time Grian saw her. If she did stay in that ranking or went higher then why did she do it instead of someone lower?
Of course, the most obvious reasoning is because it's personal. The personal level that differentiates having someone do it for you and doing it yourself. The extra layer added on that makes someone's death more of a personal attack of if they were killed by a mercenary versus the one who hired the hit itself.
Everything about his death was set up to upset Grian. It was set here because she knew that he would come here.
She knew he would come here.
She knew he would come here.
This couldn't have been her first time here. She had been watching them. She had been watching him.
She somehow got past the traps to place Zee where Yuki knew Grian would go.
But wouldn't that mean that the traps would have been activated?
Could that mean?
No.
It couldn't.
The vault was closed when they got to it. The ravager was still in the ceiling. It had to have been placed before that vault got sealed. Grian highly doubts that they would miss a suit of armor on the floor right in front of the vault door.
The H.E.P. were a part of this. They helped kill Zee.
"Grian?" A voice from behind him cut through his thoughts. He turned his head to see Impulse and Etho staring at him, or more specifically, his arms. He followed the trail of their gaze to see the rotting arm sitting on his legs.
Grian almost instantly threw the arm to the ground like it burned him.
"What type of armor is that? It almost looks like obsidian," Etho asked, walking up to the armor next to Grian before reaching down to touch it. Etho's eyes widened as he felt the armor. "This is obsidian. It's also like actual armor. Not just the armor made in Hub."
"Where did it come from?" Impulse asked while trying to lift the armor, only to find it too heavy to lift. Etho grabbed onto the other side of the armor and helped him lift.
Grian stayed silent as he tried to wipe the tears drying on his face.
Etho looked over at Grian with the visible part of his face filled with some type of realization.
"You've mentioned obsidian armor before."
Grian's heart stopped as his body tensed.
'I do not think I can accept their return unless I see them wear their obsidian armor.'
"Ethos," Impulse warned, trying to get him to stop.
"You mentioned it having something to do with Enderknights," Ethos continued, ignoring Impulse's attempt to get him to stop. "You know who it belongs to. You were in shock the moment the vault door opened. I doubt that at that time you would have known the arm inside of it when you saw it. I think you called them Enderknights? It looks like they're still alive, or, well, didn't die a few years ago."
"I watched them die. They got massacred…"
"So you were with them."
"... What?"
"I'm observant, Grian. I do believe part of the story you told us about the Enderknights when you told everyone but, other parts I can't believe. Your experience with the Enderknights made it seem… more personal. If the last of the Enderknights was dying on their way into your world, how were they able to tell you about their war and that they were all dead? How do you even know that they were the last one?"
Grian sucked in a breath as he internally panicked. He's heard some of the other hermits mention that Etho is always observant, usually followed by saying something about it being caused by years of ninja training. Grian has always brushed it aside as being a joke about his choice of clothes but… he can't help to feel that they weren't joking about it.
Especially now.
"Wait…" Etho's eyes were wide open, "you know about it because… you are an Enderknight.
AN:
Thank you for reading .
PLEASE COMMENT. Seriously, I love reading your comments.
Don't forget to check out "Graves of the Fallen" (the book on AO3).
Little fun fact, you might have noticed that Yuki's weapon is a dagger (Impulse was calling it a knife because he doesn't know the difference). If you're wondering the difference between the two, knifes usually have one sharp side while daggers have two sharp sides. Knifes are better for slashing while daggers are better for stabbing.