Tom's POV

Streams were just plain awkward nowadays. Jordan and I had decided to just remain in a separate Skype call from the others as every time Jordan entered Team Speak, Tucker just barraged him with questions about Sonja and insults about his ignorance to the main story-line. Sonja streamed alone, communicating with us via the game chat briefly, sending us private messages in an attempt to hide her presence from Tucker. She had asked us to help distract Tucker whilst she grabbed the last of her stuff from their vault so she could move out properly, to which Jordan had agreed to bodyguard her whilst I tormented Tucker. The gods were online constantly, not communicating with us at all merely sitting at spawn and staring at all those who walked past. The levels of tension were through the roof and nobody knew whether their actions would cause their demise, or whether the gods were standing right behind them. Paranoia was the prominent emotion for us all, with Jordan and I covering one anothers backs at all turns and Sonja cowering in her base whenever she saw Tucker's name nearby.

Despite all of this, the rules themselves were remaining unbroken. Tucker hadn't gone on a rampage in a few days, leading us to believe that he was planning something big and that we should be on our toes. Jordan and I had created another vault the other day, with the code hidden from the stream by setting our homes in it and just using /home to enter instead of what Jordan used to do with the whole punching in the sequence with hoppers etc, which really just took too long to complete in an emergency. We had built it underneath the end portal near the farm, with the redstone impossible to reach and obsidian surrounding the walls in case someone tried to mine their way in. The booby traps Jordan had set up were INSANE, he had creeper spawners from the Dianite Bombs I had been given way back in some of the first episodes before Jordan even joined the realm of Mianite and piston traps that shoved you into a pit with lava flowing all around you - stopping Tucker's enderpearl antics and ensuring our safety. I set up the code with my face-cam on, discussing with the wizards how to do certain redstone tricks that Jordan had little knowledge of, whilst keeping an eye out for any sign of Tucker or the gods.

Since the Purge, Tucker seemed to avoiding Jerry's Tree as much as possible with the valuables the Wizards had gifted Jordan with remaining in place despite his current thieving behavior. From what I understood, most of his time on the server was spent underground on a diamond hunt and mob grinding from the grinder over at Dec's house. It seemed that Mianite had stopped providing Tucker with countless armour sets, so he had to provide for himself and replenish the stocks we had taken from him after Jerry's demise. As much as we all knew that the spawn eggs in the dispenser were all labelled with Jerry, it was an unspoken rule that you didn't kill something that was such a potent mascot to another member of the Mianite realm. I had erected another grave for Jerry on top of the tree, sticking out from the top of the watch tower for Jordan and Sonja suggested that we gave Jerry a mock Viking burial to honour his name - and of course not invite Tucker. So I built a raft out in the sea just outside of Jerry's tree and Jordan placed Jerry's remains in the centre before lighting it on fire and returning to the top of Jerry's tree to watch as the boat burnt away and the remains were lost to the grasp of the flames and the cold grave of the sea. However the sombre moment was broken by the gods.

My screen went black momentarily and then when the blindness wore off I looked around to find myself in some cage, completely unable to break blocks. Glancing around I noticed that Jordan, Sonja and Tucker were in the same predicament and that attempting to ender glitch out was not working for Jordan as his explicit language increased with each pearl thrown. There seemed to be no-one else with us, just us stuck in some cages in a completely random location. I went to check the co-ordinates and was shocked with what I saw, we were 120 blocks up! I quickly relayed this information to Jordan and Sonja,  confirming the fact that Jordan should be able to survive this if he just jumped off the edge whilst Sonja and I found another way down. The chat displayed one message from Tucker:

Come on Team Speak.

My stream were just as confused as I was, with Jordan and Sonja confirming the same. No snitches had appeared from Tucker's chat, so I guessed that Tucker had no clue what was occurring in our world as much as we did. However once we clicked unmute it was odd, dead silent for a couple of minutes before the conversation kick started.

Tu = Tucker

T = Tom

S = Sonja

J = Jordan

Tu - So do any of you three know what the fuck is going on right now?

S - Well we are 120 blocks above the ground and stuck in cages near one another with no immediate way down. That about clarify it for you?

Tu - Don't you give me the lip Sonja, you know as well as I do what this is-

S - I want no part in it. So stop it.

T - Woah, Woah ladies, what on earth are you lot on about?

J - Well the fact that all three gods are online right now, at the same time and are all flying towards us should give you enough of a sentiment to shut up and pay attention.

Tu - Ah fuck you Jordan.

Mianite - Good afternoon my subjects.

Dianite - You forget that only two of them are your subjects. And one of them is wavering away from your goals.

Mianite - You have no say here brother, your power is in the nether and you merely have one subject that honestly isn't very competent with his tasks.

Ianite - Brothers, please stop this petty squabbling. You came here to do something Mianite and I will protect my follower from such evil.

Dianite - Well said sister. I will defend my follower also and attempt to stop this poison from seeping over the land and ruining all that we hold dear.

J - Um excuse me. My lady what did you mean by Mianite coming here to do something? The gods have been standing at spawn and staring at all who walk past, nothing else has changed in the world except Tucker's saltiness.

Tu - HEY!

Ianite - Jordan, Mianite as you realized is the Shadow. He intends to live up to his name. All of your builds, your homes, the world itself will be shrouded in darkness and destruction that rivals the blackness of the never ending void.

T - How can we stop him.

Dianite - Ah Tom. Always the hero aren't you? I'm afraid this battle is not yours to fight. You may assist but the final blow is not yours to claim.

S - When I pledged allegiance to Mianite all those months ago, I didn't imagine the consequences it would have...

Mianite - Silence! Your decision has been made, you work for me and me alone. You agreed to the Shadow's bargain did you not? Yet now you know that I was the one behind it, you are backing away from your side of the deal.

S - ...You are a monster.

Mianite - Indeed I am. Tucker, you have been loyal to me and you shall have a place beside me when the darkness rains upon this world and the story is changed. Here, I shall release you from your cage and you may exact vengeance upon these three.

I could only watch as my sword and armour vanished from my inventory, my enderpearls gone and my last resort water buckets destroyed. Curses echoed from Sonja's side of the Skype call whilst Jordan's already empty inventory remained unchanged and no sound came from his end. He was focusing on dodging the attack and finding some way out of the scenario. Since the server wasn't on 1.8, we knew that there were no invisible blocks to stop us from jumping over the edge into certain demise. My invisibility would play as a huge factor in buying time before Tucker slayed us out, however Sonja didn't have that advantage and who knows what kind of weapon Mianite would gift Tucker.

We needed some help and thankfully our own gods were pulling all kinds of sneaky tricks. A glance into our previously empty inventories revealed a Dianite Bomb, a bucket of water and a knockback stick. We all instantly knew what to do and as the cages were destroyed around us, Jordan ran straight off the edge, falling down and sneakily placing the water underneath the platform we were trapped on before he fell and landed safely at the bottom. I then dodged around Tucker, invisible and dropped the Dianite Bomb which made him fly towards Sonja who catapulted him off the edge to his death. Mianite's head swivelled towards us as we jumped into the waterfall and headed for the floor, ignoring Tucker's cries of rage. We hid inside Jordan's vault in Jerry's tree, with Ianite standing nearby the door and Dianite floating outside carrying his fire wand.

Mianite - You failed me yet again Tucker.

Tu - Well you should've stopped your supposedly inferior siblings from providing them with the means to escape!

Dianite - Inferior? Who dares to call my sister and I inferior? We have power over this land that Mianite could never dream of, that is why he wishes to shroud it in shadow in some shrewd attempt to overthrow us!

J - The tension is real.

S - Are we safe here?

Mianite - Sonja my dear you are safe nowhere. As one of my followers, I have the power over you to destroy you or to command to do my bidding. There is nowhere you can hide, even with my weaker siblings and their puny followers.

T - Oi! Who you calling puny Mr Salty!

Mianite - You dare to even speak to me, follower of Dianite?

T - Bring it bitch!

J - Don't Tom. The countdown on Mianite's greed has become and we will overthrow this tyrant of a god. 

Ianite - Jordan you are the key to solving all of this chaos. Make your way to the End and solve the puzzles within the temple. If you do not succeed, then the temple will be unprotected and left to the mercy of my brother. Please do not fail me, for all our sake's.

J - I will not fail you my lady. Tomorrow it shall be done.

Dianite - It will not be easy for you Jordan, you will not make it to the temple alone - Tom please accompany him?

T - Of course my liege. Together we shall destroy the darkness that has been cast across this land.

Mianite - You will not make it to the portal and even if you do, the shadows within my sisters so called promised land will claim you and make you my prisoner for all eternity or until you die, whichever comes last.

And with that, all the gods logged off at once, vanishing from in front of us and all that was left in Team Speak were the four of us, at loss for words and having to choose our side for the great battle that would be waged tomorrow. Jordan and I were teaming together, we knew that much and we had sufficient gear to support one another throughout all the trials however we did not know which way Sonja would choose to go. Her loyalty to her god meant that she had to fight for him even when she believed it was wrong. She couldn't run from her ties forever and Tucker would not rest until he had her by his side in one of the greatest wars to grace the realm of Mianite. We had a day to prepare, so together Jordan and I left Team Speak and went mob grinding, using the last of the stream time to prep for tomorrow trying to prepare for the destruction that was to come our way.

Jordan had to succeed and uncover what secrets lay within the Ianite temple, surely they would show us the way to save us all from the darkness that had seeped into Mianite's heart.

A/N

Welp that was another chapter :D

Don't worry, the next chapter will NOT be the final one, I plan this story to be around 15 chapters long, at least that's how I planned it.

Have a good weekend everyone and let me know what you thought of it <3

- Caitlin