AN

So this is a very special chapter! You see, this is the 100th chapter for the entire series! So I made this as a sort of special chapter and a bit of breather for the angst since it'll continue being suffocating for the rest of the arc. 

Just a heads' up, I might take a short hiatus soon. Maybe just put away the keyboard for a week so to speak, to freshen my mind. I want to make sure that I'm not getting bored of this and thus pumping out bad chapters. (To be clear, I love writing this! It's just that I've noticed a bit of burn out from a similar hobby from mine, and want to make sure it doesn't spread here.)


~🌤~

Ender Dragons

Description: Ender Dragons reside in the End. Every world has a mother and it's egg. It is considered a player's honor to slay a Dragon despite the fact they usually don't attack players unless they are attacked first. Dragons can be revived with end crystals and are able to bless others, though they seldom do. Dragon eggs cannot hatch unless extremely rare conditions involving a player are met. As such, virtually all dragons are female. 

Powers: Flight; dragon's breath; able to be revived; creating worlds (Enderllion only); dragon's blessing

Colors: Black/purple

Lifespan: 1,000 (10:1)

Location: Ends; the True End

Leader: Enderllion, Mother of All Dragons, Birther of Worlds

Hybrids: TBD... maybe elytrians? I'm not sure what dragon-like human creatures there are-- But their lifespan is 250, or (4:1)

~🌤~

Time and time again, Xel relived his life in the Void. Sometimes, he remembered, and simply looking at the illusion of his teacher acting just as he always had made him burst into tears. Sometimes, Grian told him outright about it all, how he was dead and this was the Void. The illusion never believed it. Less and less, Grian told it the truth, seeing as it hardly seemed to make a difference. 

Other times, Grian lived in bliss, unknowing the ways in which this was a punishment. He lived out his life beside Miesall just as he had done back then, the scenes repeating in order. He'd find himself in a new world; Evolution. He would bond with others only to be ripped from them. He would become Xelqua again, living his life as a Watcher before making the mistakes he once did. To have Miesall die in his arms, over and over again.

In these times, 'Miesall' wasn't as kind. His dying words were ones of hate and vengeance. Ones that accused Xelqua of being at fault for all of this. "You foolish, stupid human!" He sometimes would say with breath that the real Watcher didn't have, "You are a disgrace not only to the Great Ones, but your friends and all of humanity as well! To kill another like this — your own friend, even! And to think; you wailed and cried and sobbed when you chose to abandon your other friends. Now here you are again, crying like a crybaby over your own actions, as if you are the one truly suffering in this scenario."

He'd grab onto Xel, digging his blood-stained nails into his flesh, tearing it apart. The murderer wouldn't protest, though often times he couldn't help but cry out, proving 'Miesall's' point.

There were times that Xelqua would respond, and other times that he did not. "I'm sorry!" He would often cry when he did. "I didn't mean—"

"But you did." The bloodied creature hissed. "You were the one who chose to disobey our leaders. You were the one who got us sent to the worlds to scrounge around like pathetic little players, disgracing both of us. You were the one who insisted that we just had to go to the village. To be surrounded by the very wretched creatures I've been warning you about for— how long? Over two centuries— twice as long as the human lifespan. And somehow you still couldn't get it through that stupid head of yours."

Xel sometimes found himself shocked, at a loss of words. Other times, he was crying to hard to really form words that could be discernable. He knew what the illusion was saying was true, though... all too true.

And then it would start all over again, from the moment that Grian woke up on the ground at Evolution's spawn or the moment before Miesall would open his door and the two would meet for the first time.

It was a vicious cycle, but the times he lived in bliss, he almost looked forward to them. As long as he was here with Miesall, he felt alive. The only thing that held him back from cherishing that time was guilt.

This is a story of such blissful times full of warm memories.

~🌤~

Grian crept along the long white hallways of the temple. All was quiet as it often was, and no one seemed to be around. He kept his head on a swivel, his human eyes trying to ensure that he wasn't being followed or watched.

There was never much for him to do here. As much as he hated sitting there listening to lectures from Miesall, it wasn't like his time off was much fun, either. He needed to find a way to entertain himself somehow.

He moved to a pair of double doors. He had seen Miesall walk in with a bunch of others a bit ago, and he wanted to ensure that they were still in there. He pressed his ear to the door, making sure that he didn't actually put his weight against it. The doors were thick, but his strained hearing picked up some quiet mumbling.

They were still in the meeting. That was perfect.

He ran as quietly as he could to a room. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he looked around the enchantment area. It was about the only place in the entire temple that actually had materials. He rushed over to a chest, opening it just a bit so it wouldn't creak. He grabbed a few empty bottles before he went to fill them. A bucket would have been better, but he would have to make do with what he had. He hid them in his inventory.

He crept back to the door, pushing it ever so slightly so he could just see the smallest sliver into the hallway. A single Watcher was walking with their back turned. Grian had to hold a hand against his mouth to avoid letting out a scared peep. He waited a few seconds, waiting until the Watcher was completely out of sight. He let out a sigh in relief, happy to have not been spotted. He moved himself into the hallway before quietly dashing to his room.

Safely inside, he moved his chair over to the door and stood on top of it. He opened the door a crack, just enough that if someone would not be paying attention, they wouldn't have noticed. He gently placed the water bottles on top of it, feeling how they were already unstable on the thin door. He had to prop them so that they were leaning against the doorframe for support.

It was an old fashioned prank, but it'd do. He hopped down and began dragging the chair back to the desk when he heard footsteps in the hallway. Grian froze, quickly turning around. He hadn't expected Miesall to come back so quickly. He had turned around just in time to see the Watcher push open the door with his hand, though he stood a foot or two back. The water bottles crashed onto his arm, soaking the sleeve of his robe, but he seemed completely unfazed. "What are you doing, Grian?" He asked in his usual monotone way, not even looking at his wet sleeve.

Grian had started to laugh, but it quickly died when he didn't get any reaction from the other. The room filled with an awkward silence as the Watcher nearly stared into his soul.

As the moments passed, Miesall's arm glowed, drying his sleeve. In all of Grian's excitement, he had forgotten how Watchers had magic, how they could see everything. Of course he could see Grian's shenanigans, but evidently he didn't quite understand them.

"I was trying to prank you..." Grian replied at last, feeling a bit shy. He averted his blue eyes, though he still felt the stare of the Watcher who was halfway through the door. He didn't really respond to that, only bending over to grab the empty water bottles, holding them in his arms.

"You did that a lot with your friends." Miesall observed at last.

"Yeah, there wasn't much to do otherwise." Grian only shrugged. Evolution didn't have much, being in such early versions. In the first few updates, they couldn't even run or sleep! The same could be said of this place, but this was a whole different extreme. The temple was nearly bare or material possessions; Grian had been proud of himself earlier for remembering they even had water bottles in the first place.

Miesall stayed quiet a few moments longer before he turned to the hallway. "Here, though, we have lessons." He replied. Without saying anything else, he walked out, expecting Grian to follow.

~🌤~

A small crowd had formed below the podium, all looking in at he man behind it. "Thank you, thank you." Taurtis was saying as he waved to all his friends. "To be honest I don't even really remember running for mayor in the first place, but I'm so glad that you all voted for me anyway! As my first act as mayor. I uh..." he voice trailed off, not sure what to say.

"It shoulda been me." Martyn huffed as the new mayor spoke, crossing his arms and puffing out his cheeks slightly.

"We've been over this." Grian replied. "We can't just have a mayor that just goes around, blowing things up all willy-nilly! Or ones that rig the election." He shot a glance at Mini who only lowered his head. He had nothing to argue here; cheating was without a doubt wrong.

"But you do that all the time! I only did it once, and you were there edging me on!" Martyn argued.

Grian only hummed, placing a hand on his heart as he smirked. "But I wasn't running for mayor, was I? I'm unsuitable to run as well, which is why I didn't." It had all been a devilish plot to get Taurtis to be mayor. Everyone had done dirty things in the election; Grian was just Taurtis' hit man so to speak. Not that Taurtis had told him to do that.

The mayor cleared his throat, prompting everyone to bring attention to him again. "My first law as mayor shall be, everyone must give cake to the mayor." He decided. He would have said sweets; he could really go for a cookie or candy, but they didn't exist in this trapped world. There was very little variety in food; just plain bread, meat so bland it could hardly even really associate it with beef and cake. Even the cake had tasted dull after all this time, but they tried to make the most of it.

"What a ridiculous rule..." Martyn shook his head.
"Hey, I think it's a good one." Jimmy protested. Eating cake all the day long did sound better than the taste of stale, rather boring bread.

"Must I remind you that I was voted in?" Taurtis asked.

 
"You weren't voted in; you were the only choice after I was wrongfully disqualified along with Mini." Martyn corrected. Netty slipped by him, gently touching his arm. The elf immediately relaxed at the sight of her soft smile.

"Don't worry, love. It's just a silly title." she giggled slightly. That was all it took for Martyn to accept the new mayor.

~🌤~

"Good job." Miesall said, his eyes studying the board. He hadn't found use in saying such words, but he supposed humans used them to comfort each other. He was met with rows of rules behind the human in sub-adequate handwriting, but it was right nonetheless. "You answered them all correctly."

Grian smiled to himself, rocking back and forth on his heels. It may not have been much, but he was proud of himself for finally getting it right.

Miesall turned and walked back over to the desks. Grian had been with him long enough to get what he had meant, going to slide back into his seat.

"There are a few extra rules that Great Ones want to make sure you understand." The teacher began, holding his hands behind his back.

Grian tilted his head slightly. He glanced back at the board. Between having no material possessions, no lovers, sworn to the truth and being fully obedient to the Great Ones, he couldn't possibly imagine another rule. "What are they?" He asked.

"Just some clarifications, one could say." Miesall replied, matter of factly as always. "Firstly, you may not use TNT or any other methodology to blow up the temple."

Grian blinked, recalling how the Watchers once called his base the 'Empire of Explosion.' Was this really what this was about? "How would I even get the T—" he began, getting cut off.

"You are also forbidden from breaking and destroying the temple in any way, shape or form." Miesall continued . "That includes mining or punching blocks, flooding the area, igniting the premises, exploding terrain or licking doorknobs."

Grian blinked a few times, finding himself speechless. The Watchers seldom repeated themselves, and when they did, it was always that Grian hadn't retained a lesson so Miesall had to say it again. And what was that about licking things? What was that about?

Were the Watchers that convinced that he was just going to explode everything in sight? He didn't do that!

... well, okay. He had used a lot of dynamite in Evolution, he had to admit that. But still!

"Okay, okay, I get it." Xel gave a nervous chuckle. "I won't do anything to destroy or otherwise damage the temple."

Miesall nodded. "Good." Was all he said.

~🌤~

"Grian, you get back here right now!!" Netty yelled as she ran along the leaves of a tree. She could see the gremlin running away, snickering to himself as he ran. She jumped down, bending her knees to absorb some of the fall damage. She still could resist the urge to let out a loud "oof." It was all in the code, after all. She didn't wait for herself to recover, running straight the other.

Grian was crackling as she shrieked about how naughty he was, as if he was a little kid stealing a cookie. He was sure to keep the diamond block he was holding in his arms just to annoy her all the more.

He began to run as fast as he could, taking lots of turns to be sure to lose her. It wasn't hard; Netty got easily confused with directions.

Ducking into the Nether portal, the same fiery landscape as always greeted him. He stumbled a bit, seeing as the portal messed with his head. He knew he didn't have much time. He ran along the makeshift Nether bridge, only reaching the other side when he found himself being tackled to the ground.

At first, he thought that maybe a ghast had gotten him, or that Netty had caught up with him. The wind was knocked right out of his lungs, his vision filled with nothing but the Netherack his face had slid against. The block bounced out of his arms, though he was too preoccupied to notice. A crushing weight came down onto his back as the person took his arms.

"Give her diamond back, Grian!" The person exclaimed.

Of course; he should have expected this. It was all Grian could do but begin to chuckle, smirking. No one else would bother chasing after him other than Netty and... "come to save the day, Prince Charming?" He teased.

Martyn hesitated, the elf blushing slightly at the nickname. "So? What if I am?" He asked, deciding to ignore the prince part. "Someone needs to help her! At this rate, you're going to drop it lava or explode it or something!"

"I was going to give it back." He defended. "Just as soon as I had a bit of fun."

It was then that a frantic Netty came running up behind the two men, her animal hoodie falling off her head. "Grian, I swear if you--" she began, skidding to a stop as she noticed that Martyn had pinned down the gremlin. In a moment, her entire demeanor changed. "Martyn? What are you doing here?" she asked, blinking. 

"Oh." Martyn exclaimed, almost as if he hadn't heard her coming. He scrambled to his feet, going over to collect the diamond. He was thankful that the culprit at least remained on the floor so he could hand the jewel over to it's rightful owner. "I was just getting this for you." he replied, finding himself averting his gaze as he felt the weight leave his hands. Netty giggled as she received her prize, stashing it away for safe keeping. She pecked Martyn's cheek, causing a slight blush to rise to his cheeks. 

"My hero." she fawned before skipping away in victory, the elf hopelessly rubbing his cheek where he was kissed.

~🌤~

AN

I have said this before, but I feel as though I should say it again: Martyn and Netty are married and have kids irl. I don't really like spoiling my own series,... but spoilers: I mainly use their relationship as character motivation and angst later down the line. There really isn't going to be much of them just like, kissing or romance or whatever you'd call that between them in this story.