Jordan's POV

My head hurt so much. A endless throbbing well of pain that lingered behind my eyes, pulsing in time with my heartbeat. It was dark, I couldn't find the strength to open my eyelids and face the searing lights, so I allowed my other senses to break the confusion that was consuming my mind. I was lying on cold, hard earth with the grass scratching the back of my neck constantly, whilst the cold wind whistled over my motionless body - sending bone numbing shivers down my spine and causing goosebumps to form on my bare skin. I could smell flowers and trees surrounding me, the leaves rustling quietly overhead. Squinting carefully, I began to open my eyes knowing that I couldn't remain in the darkness forever. I was in a forest that seemed rather familiar to me, with the sound of far off animals bleeting and grunting constantly. There were multiple wooden staircases leading down to multiple locations including a boat and some sort of house with a salt shaker on top? It was lingering in the corner of my mind that this place was too familiar for it to be a coincidence but for the life of me I did not know where I was. Once my eyes opened completely I was confused, everything seemed to be blocks! Immediately I dropped my gaze down to what I was wearing, my clothes were black trousers, jacket and a white top with a pair of red sunglasses sitting on my head. I still looked human, with fingers and the usual human traits compared to those of the minecraft world but the blocky world and familiar textures told me otherwise of my location. 

Looking around the blocky realm, I glanced downwards to spot a note that had been sitting next to my unconcious form written in a minecraft book. It read:

'Welcome to Phase Two Jordan. This was the consequence that I spoke of. But surely you have figured that out by now. And surely you will have figured out the true gravity of your situation. I wish you the best of luck in your journey and that you are the hero the riddle spoke of. Do not die in vain. - Fate.'

Panic shot to my senses as my mind quickly began to flick back through the memories and what little knowledge I had of this area. This was the Realm Of Mianite, I knew that much and I had awoken in the garden of my house near Jerry's tree which stood tall behind me. Tom had last been seen running from Mianite, I had no idea whether he was alive and had managed to evade Mianite or not. Maybe he was here? That was the blanket consequence that Fate had spoken of. But what irritated me more was the idea that we were trapped in Mianite, inside a game that we streamed for a couple of hours a day. What would the viewers be seeing right now? A character moving around on a screen like a human, an empty facecam that didn't make much sense? My viewers must be terrified or at least worried, what if I didn't upload for weeks at a time, what would happen to them without me!

Shaking my head out of those terrifying thoughts, I began puzzling over the riddle Ianite had set me line by line, trying to decipher its meaning.

When the realm is in peril.

When the shadows are free,

When the light turns dark,

When all seems lost.

The first four lines were pretty self explanatory, the realm was in peril from Mianite - also known as the Shadow, he represented the light but had turned dark. But the last line was confusing, we had hope, we didn't think it was over did we? That was a bad omen to say the least.

A hero will rise in the name of justice,

With one life remaining,

I guess those lines were referring to me, I was the only Ianite follower on the server and I stood for justice but one life remaining? The main point of minecraft was that you could respawn, try again whenever you died, its not like the gods had the power to change the gamemode right? But the letter Fate had left me seemed to state otherwise... Ah. Hardcore mode. Great. Swearing to myself, I continued my deciphering with a sense of dread turning in my stomach.

He will have a terrible choice to make,

At the end of it all,

But until that day comes,

The justice must be upheld,

Or all will perish.

This is Ianite's Riddle.

Time to respawn.

I honestly didn't know what to say to those lines, except that I needed to uphold the way of Ianite through justice and equality. I was confused and terrified by this terrible choice that I needed to make in the future and I had absolutely no knowledge of what it might entail. Shaking my head, I began to try and figure out how to control myself in this realm, there was no E key to hit to open the inventory and I couldn't see any method of getting into chat. A beeping sound echoed from my wrist and I noticed a high-tech watch situated upon my wrist that hadn't been there before. I clicked the small button and a projection appeared in front of me with the words Chat? Or Inventory? . Shocked I stuttered out 'Inventory' and my inventory appeared in front of me causing me to stare in wonder. I reached out and tapped on my armor staring in astonishment as it appeared on my body, with no effect on the weight on my body.

Pulling out my sword, I then went to the chat option and spoke aloud again 'Hello?' . I was retaining the hope that my friends had figured out how to work these fancy watches and that they were at least conscious like I was. Then Sonja's voice came over the watch, echoing loud and clear - 'Jordan?! Where are you?' We immediately set to finding one another, it seemed that she had spawned in her secret base and had been running from mobs in the time it had taken me to get my bearings. She was in her minecraft skin, the fox hoodie clinging to her hair and a sword in her hand. We agreed to go find the others. finding everyone sitting in their homes in their minecraft skins with no clue of what was happening. After a while of merely standing and staring at one another, we began to speak to figure out what the heck had happened to us and where our alliances stood.

 J - Jordan

Tu - Tucker

T - Tom

S - Sonja

S - So. We are literally in Mianite apparently. Anyone got any clue why?

Tu - Yeah I do. It's cause Jordan, the idiot decided that a consequence should effect us all. Did you lose the challenge Jordan? Is that why you screwed us all over?

T - Chill Tucker, Jordan didn't fail, your god failed in stopping him because he's a pussy.

J - I asked for the consequence not to affect you all but apparently I had no choice in the matter. This is the way of the riddle.

Tu - Yeah I know about that fricking riddle. You've already fulfilled like a third of it and I wish you would stop!

S - Tucker we are all on the same side here! We are all trapped in a video game so chill your tits.

T - Don't all the cliches just expect us to either defeat the enderdragon or to just die? That's how you get out in all the movies.

J - Not so easy Tom. This is hardcore mode. And deep down you all knew that.

Tu - WHAT THE HELL JORDAN.

S - TUCKER! Calm down now!

T - All our stuffs still here, as long as we don't lose our tempers and kill one another it should be fine, go back to your bases and get what gear you think you need and we can all meet up at Dec's house, see if he's there in some attempt to get some answers.

 I ran back to the house, grabbing whatever I deemed necessary to assist with potential scenarios to occur soon before racing back and bumping straight into Tom, causing myself to tumble to the floor and hit my head. Groaning, I sat back up and accepted Tom's hand to pull me to my feet, apologizing profusely for bumping into him whilst he fretted over my head. I guess you can feel pain in here, that's not great. Tom's mothering was interrupted by Sonja and Tucker arriving, with Tucker looking like he just got yelled at and Sonja looking satisfied for once. I raised an eyebrow at Tom but the other two didn't react so I guess it was private business. Tom turned and looked at me, before jumping back and swearing explicitly.

T - 'Holy macaroni Jordan!'

J - 'What is it Tom?'

T - 'Your eye has a purple bit around the iris...'

I jogged over to the pool of water in the river nearby and looked at my reflection, Tom was right there was a purple ring around my iris - was this a mark of my loyalties? I raced back over to Tom and stared into his eyes and sure enough there was a dark red ring around his eyes whilst Sonja's eyes had a amber ring. Tucker however had a black ring which was curious, since both Tucker and Sonja were Mianitee's surely they would have the same colour...

Shaking my head, I put my sunglasses back on and walked into Dec's house with my sword raised, the others flanked me from all sides as a working unit, ready to react to whatever they threw at us. We walked past the chest area and up the tower, hearing voices shouting phrases we couldn't quite comprehend. At the top of the tower we were gifted with a treat, all three gods and Dec shouting at one another - as you do on a normal day in Mianite. We merely stood and stared until the gods finally took notice of us and turned around, their conversation ceasing as our gods stared at us individually, trying to decipher what we were thinking. Ianite looked proudly towards me as if I had done something correctly for once which seemed like a good sign. Mianite's face almost seemed to twist in half, one half smiling at Sonja whilst the other half seemed to be glaring demonically at Tucker. Dianite looked thoughtfully at Tom, a proud expression but also a knowing one which always concerns me. Dec however was staring harshly at me with the expression that expressed exactly how I felt at that point in time - only you can save them.

J - 'So I presume the riddle has to be fulfilled before we can leave the realm of Mianite and go back to our normal lives?'

Dianite - You are correct Jordan. And before you ask, the hardcore mode cannot be changed because of my idiot brother here.

T - Why is he even here? I thought he was trying to kill us all.

S - Look at him though, one eye is dark one eye is light? You think this explains why Tucker and I's eyes are different?

J - Could be. Haven't figured that out yet.

Tu - Sonja you know how this ends! Stop playing dumb and tell them!

Mianite - Tell them Sonja, tell them their doo- salvat-ARGH.

Mianite clutched his head as his body shook from side to side, I never knew that gods could feel pain such as that. Shadows emanated from half of his body and Ianite rushed to his side, glowing with calming purple light and helping him rise again. We were bewildered to say the least and before we could ask anything, Mianite and Ianite vanished, leaving Dianite and Dec to stare at us with no real explanation to what was happening. The only advice we were given was this:

Dec - 'The riddle Ianite gave you contains eight crucial members. You will meet three of them soon and where their loyalties lie will be clear immediately, however the fourth you must convince. For they can be a deadlier enemy then all the gods combined.'

Dianite - Look over the hillside after this and the three will come to you. The fourth however will be there but not so easily found. Assemble them all and forfill the next part of the riddle, answers will come then.

J - But who is this... fourth person? And why are they not on any side?

Dianite - You will know it due time. But she will not be easy to convince. Good luck.

And with that they just vanished, leaving us to turn and face our new companions.

A/N

EYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

How you lot doing this fine day?

Yes the OC's in the competition will be introduced in the next chapter and I will create a little chapter before that to announce the winners, however you can still enter! Go back to the last chapter and post a comment following the guidelines set out there, no IRL events needed however connections still count.

Let me know what you thought of this chapter down below!

And share the story with anyone who likes Mianite!

Have a good day <3

Caitlin