12

Chapter 12 The End

The body of the dragon doesn't disappear when it dies. No, it does something much weirder. It starts to convert to endstone. Does this mean the entire island is made from dragon corpses?

The few pieces I removed didn't convert even after I took them out of my Inventory. Oddly, the skin and bones were converted to normal leather and bone. In the end everything left save the skull and heart were converted.

Breaking apart the body after that only yields the skull and heart. The skull is of course dragon bone and so looks fossilized already, but the heart is actually a mass of blocks that resemble magma. They shatter like glass when struck though and drop blaze rods as the shards disintegrate. A few hours or digging later and I sadly conclude the island probably doesn't have any dragon skulls or hearts buried anywhere.

What it does have is two new structures. The first I recognize as the Exit portal. That should take me back to the overworld. I waste no time in making my over and grabbing the dragon egg that spawned on top.

It's different from the game. A cluster of tines cradled a single egg that was only about a foot long. I only had to pick it up. No mining involved. Placing it in my Inventory even labeled it as an item.

The second I don't recognize at all.

It was supposed to be a Gateway portal, but those were made from bedrock. This looks like the Nether portal if it was made from glowstone. It even had the same purple glow. Touching it revealed it was the Gateway portal and gave me a recipe and description as well.

This changes things.

The ability to travel three kilometers nearly instantly was amazingly useful. Never mind rails, boats or even flying. I needed these everywhere.

I was interrupted in my plans for creating a network of gates across the world by the arrival of a ship. When it appeared I just stared. An End ship. Sailing. I guess I should have expected it to be able to move, but seeing it still surprised me.

It was definitely an End ship too. A large purple sailing vessel with no sail and a dragons head on the bow. Although it wasn't so much a dragon's head as a full size dragon skull.

Looks like it's time to meet the natives.

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The meeting did not go well. First off they wanted the dragon skull and heart and were pretty pissed they were missing. Second off they looked very different from me. They were short, standing only about five feet high and had a slender build. Their skin was paler than mine and their hair and eyes were black with a purple tint. They seemed to instantly find my appearance suspicious.

All of that could have been explained way if only we shared a common language! I could make out traces of what might have been High Valyrian, but if it was, it was so corrupted I couldn't understand it. Needless to say, we didn't get along.

I tried to be patient. I like to think I even succeeded. At least until one of the poked me with a dragon bone spear. I lost my temper then and gutted him. I tensed and prepared myself, only to be met with laughter.

Only one of them was upset and I think challenged me to a fight if his posture was any indication. It wasn't much of one. My equipment was Valyrian steel and heavily enchanted. He, like the rest of the people, wasn't wearing anything I'd think of as actual armor. He was also only wielding bone weapons.

I also had better potions than he did. Not that I used them. His swing failed to even injure me. My strike neatly severed a leg. I was careful to strike well away from his torso. The reason was simple. He was wearing an elytra.

I ignored it when he punched the ground. I figured it was just out frustration and knowing he was going to die. So I was completely caught off guard when large curves spikes erupted from the ground under me.

It didn't do much damage, but it took me completely surprise. More importantly, I recognized that attack! That was the fang spell from the game. They had magic! Magic I didn't know!

When he died, missing most of his limbs everyone cheered. I felt like doing so myself. I wasted no time in swiping it and getting the recipe. I did give it back immediately afterwards. I didn't want to upset them. Iron bars, leather and glass? I can make my own easy enough.

They were remarkably fine with what had just happened. That might be because of their interest in my armor though. Given how elytra uses iron they probably recognize how similar it is.

They were a lot nicer to me and actually tried to communicate with gestures. We had even shared a meal of very juicy purple fruit and wine that was probably made from it. Given how tense they were before I ate I bet it was their form of guest rights.

In the end I traded a few potions with them as the rest of the crew cut down the obsidian pillars and carried them back to their ship. Given the recipe for elytra, I can understand how thoroughly they searched for the iron bars and collected them.

They left peacefully and cheerfully. That was good. Learning their magic would likely be easier if they helped me. I waved good bye to them. It was a very odd scene in stark contrast to the bleak environment.

When I could no longer see them I wasted no time in securing my base. I coated the entire exterior in endstone to disguise it and then backed it with iron slabs. With just dragon bone tools they wouldn't be able to mine through over a foot of solid iron.

I also placed golems, skeleton archers and traps throughout the complex. I wasn't taking any chances in anyone looting it while I wasn't present.

I ended up using the Exit portal and found out I appeared at the End portal I made. Slightly disappointing, but useful since it made it easy to defend. I went all out when I realized endermen were spawning from it.

An amphitheater setup with several rings of archers created a decent killzone. Along with a layer of water on top of a layer of magma it was a deathtrap for endermen. A small force of heavily armored golems should be enough to contain anything else that arrives.

I guess dragon golems do have a use. A dragon head on a draconic body, all made of Valyrian steel created a golem with four hundred health. Paired with enchanted armor and I ended up with a juggernaught.

I was planning on actually making more since I realized their potential. Sure they were terrible soldiers. They were amazing war beasts though. It would also be hilarious to use them as draft animals at some point where others can see.

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When I was finally satisfied that my supply lines were secure I returned to use the Gateway portal. I was pretty excited about it. Not only was it a new place to explore, but the gates required Purpur blocks to create. Since those required Chorus trees, here I am exploring.

Only the portal wasn't there. I could see scrape marks on the ground showing where someone had manually broken the gate up to steal. Stealing bastards! That was my portal!

I was furious. I looked for a ship, but the area was remarkably empty. I spend several hours fortifying my base. Mostly it just involved expanding rooms and passages to make room for more guards.

As I was leaving I did note something odd. The Exit portal seemed to have a shiny growth on it. If I didn't know better I'd say it was growing end crystals.

I guess I know where all the dragon skulls came from now. All of a sudden I'm finding myself impressed by the people here. I wonder how they manage to actually kill the dragons. I think I need to learn more about the people here.

Frustrated I leave to get some supplies. Nothing is going to be keeping me from getting my own Gateway portals. Henceforth to be shortened to just Gates.

When I go to gather the supplies I need I pause. The clock shows that it's still noon. There was no way I missed a whole day and I was there for at least three or four hours.

A few quick tests confirm it. The End actually has a faster time stream than either of the other two dimensions I have access too. After a rough estimate I place it at about eight times faster.

That's huge. Combined with my resources I can raise enormous numbers of animals in a fraction of the time. Creatures were my only possible bottleneck before or at least if I needed them. Thinking about it, besides leather I don't really use any animal products. I guess it's yet another exploit that will be shelved for now.

While animals might not be feasible right now, spawners are another story. I waste no time in setting up a few spawner harvester set ups. I'd move all of them here except the portals make any kind of mass transport unfeasible. The best I can do is set up an additional storage site and a train of pack mules.

I wasn't content to stay on the central island though. I also wasn't content to just wait for the dragon to respawn on it's own. No matter how fast the crystals were growing. I was too impatient to wait around for a week or more.

It was the elytra that proved to me just how remarkable Valyrian steel is. The main drawback of using one is how fast it degrades. In the game it's practically a novelty item. Now, soaring out across the void, I am seriously thinking of making this my normal means of transportation.

Of course I had plenty of spare elytra, an entire stack, and enough of rockets to fill half my Inventory. I wasn't taking any chances with falling into the abyss below me. Even if it isn't voidstone, I'm pretty certain it's just as deadly.

I'm not really sure how far it is to cross what I'm already calling the black sea. If it takes more than a few stacks of rockets I'll turn back and try a different approach. After all, obsidian floats here so making a ship shouldn't be too difficult.

I don't even use up half a stack of rockets before I can see land. When I get close enough to make out details I'm surprised. I didn't just find land. I found an end city. Sort of. There were a lot of differences. It was an actual city, not just a few connected towers. Buildings sprawled everywhere, clustering the closest to the edges of the island.

With my vantage point it was easy to see the city was oriented towards the island I had just left behind. It was also far from isolated. It seemed the entire coastline was inhabited. Docks extended from most of the islands and ships of all sizes sailed back and forth.

It seems the ship I had seen was actually on the smaller end of the scale. Massive ships, even larger than the galley I had been designing, existed. And all of them had a dragon's skull mounted on the prow.

The few smaller ships lacked a skull and were the only ones that seemed to require oars. They were also small enough that I could see the obsidian set in the bottom of the hull.

Thankfully elytra seemed to be recognizable since no one panicked at the sight of me. I don't think they were common given how many people stared though. I'm really just glad they didn't try to shoot me out of the sky. I don't really speak their language so I pretty much skipped past them.

It was interesting to note that they had more plants than just Chorus trees. Some kind of silvery bamboo and nether wart were also present. I wondered how they got a hold of the nether wart until I passed over an arena.

The arena was sunken and had walls and guard posts along the edges. It also contained a Nether portal.

That changes things.

Access to the Nether means there is a decent chance I'll come across them at some point. With how I'm currently laid out I don't really have much in the way of defenses. I'm going to need to change that soon.

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I kept flying. The islands weren't that big and almost all the settlements seemed to cluster around the edge of the black sea. They shrink in number and size pretty quickly and it wasn't long before I felt comfortable landing.

I manage to get several Chorus flowers as well as stalks of the silvery plant called Crystal Bamboo. They're both growing on endstone so should be easy enough to grow for myself.

I did get attacked by foot long silver centipedes. Freaking silverfish of all things! Why on earth were they in the End? There isn't any stone here!

It turns out they didn't need stone. Nope. They nest inside chorus trees. All the trees seem to be infested with them. I'm going to have to be insanely careful with the flowers I gathered.

The bad thing was they blended in so very well with the crystal bamboo. Combined with how they tried to ambush me as well as swarm and they turned out to be very annoying. If I couldn't fly away they might even have been dangerous.

Still I got my plant and even a new one. This trip was already worth it. Seeing how many difference there were I was curious to see what else there might be. It wasn't even dangerous. I hadn't seen a single flying creature so far and endermen never seemed to look up.

Farther away from what I'm thinking of as the center of this dimension the temperature dropped steadily. Even if I couldn't really feel much the patches of ice would give it away. That and the snow in the air.

Oddly enough the snow didn't seem to falling from anywhere. It was just present. It fell so slowly it seemed to be hovering. It grew thicker as I flew farther long, limiting my vision.

The islands seemed to be less tightly clustered here. They were snow covered so they shone in stark contrast to the water. Around that point I also noticed small patches of ice forming on the water. The black eats everything it touches water freezing just seemed wrong.

Weirdly, the ice was harmless. It also melted into normal water. I guess it explains the few ships I see sailing out here that seem to be collecting blocks of ice. I hadn't seen any springs or rain so their water had to come from somewhere.

I hadn't found anything new yet. Still this was all very new to me. Completely different from anything in the game. I pushed on even as the islands get further apart. I wonder if eventually I'll run out of land completely?

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It was soon after I almost ran into the iceberg. I say iceberg, but it was more like a tower of carved ice. It was elaborate too. No crude pillar, it was a square fortified keep with a bartizan on each corner. Each of the fortified balconies as well as the top of the main tower possessed perfectly formed battlements.

It was staffed too. I found that out when I was struck by an arrow. I tried dodging, but the arrow had slowed me down and I ended up flying upwards to give me time to drink some milk.

Even that didn't completely help. Translucent gargoyle-like figures were even now rising from the roof and chasing me. I actually recognized them once I saw they were carrying swords.

Vexes. They're usually a summoned creature. I wonder if that means there's an Evoker inside the tower. Of course, I've already run into a possible Stray if the arrow of slowing is any indication.

Oh well, no use worrying about it now. I gleefully pull out pillars of stone and watch them drop. The snow makes it hard for everyone to see. I manage to catch several vexes and shoot the few I missed.

Below the tower hadn't fared so well. It turns out it really was built out of ice. At least the bartizans were. The pillars shattered each miniature tower and broke them completely off the central keep. I made sure to miss the keep though. No point in taking the chance of destroying any loot.

Oddly, the roof didn't have an entrance. It had a platform protected by battlements, but it seemed to only be used as a roost for the vexes I had killed. Looking over I can see that the bartizans didn't have an entrance either. How the hell did the strays get on the platform?

Whatever. There is no way I'm using the one entrance at the base of the tower. It looks way too much like a trap. I tunnel down through the roof.

So glad minecraft gave me good mining habits. The roof is really thin, only a single block thick. Worse there isn't anything underneath. Just a very long fall.

Looking through the hole I can see a massive throne room that pretty much makes up the entire interior of the keep. An ornate ice throne has a blue robed skeleton sitting on it facing the doors. Huh, maybe the doors weren't a trap after all.

The oddest thing about the room was the tree. It was barely a dozen feet high and seemed to be growing out of the back of the throne. Or maybe the back of the throne was made from the tree. The leaves got in the way.

The tree was new as well. Pure white bark with a silvery sheen, it almost seemed to shimmer. Pale blue leaves that actually did faintly glow clustered around an odd round silver fruit of some kind. The tree was the only source of light in the entire room.

Like the outside the walls were etched to looks like brickwork. There weren't any windows but the walls were carved in a few places to give the impression of banners. Each corner contained a massive ice sculpture of a person. The statues had their arms raised and gave the impression of holding up the roof.

I didn't trust the statues. If they animated there was no room for me to dodge. Besides this is way too convenient. I lean down and select a pallet of stone. I'd use a block normally, but I didn't want the tree to have a chance of stopping it. I watch with glee as the massive block crushes everything beneath it.

Oddly the tree shattered like glass. More fragile than it looked. I guess it wasn't much protection. The tree melts, but a few fruit fall clear. I'm pretty shocked when they burst in a wisp of black smoke which formed into an enderman.

Ok. I really need to get a sample of this tree. I also need to find out how enderman are in the Nether.

Of course it got worse. The statues all animate. Not like it was a problem for me. I widened the hole, set up a turret and mowed down everything. Safely out of reach it just took time. The enderman couldn't teleport high enough to reach me and the statues couldn't reach high enough. Easy.

Seeing nothing moving I swoop down. There was nothing left of the tree. Creatures either. Not sure if it was relevant, but they had all dissolved into water. Well, I did get an ender pearl. Woo.

When I picked up the ender pearl I noticed a faint glow coming from beneath me. The glow was the same shade of blue the trees leaves had been. Looking at it, it wasn't just under me. It was beneath the entire floor, a few layers down.

And it was getting brighter.

I took off as soon as I realized it. I was almost too late.

The floor shattered as something tore through the ice beneath me. I couldn't take the time to look back since I was too busy aiming for the hole I made in the roof. Really don't want to miss that.

The roar caught me by surprise. It was deafening. It slammed into me, a literal wall of sound that almost made me miss my target. Instead I clipped the edge with a wing.

Deaf and disoriented I tumbled through the air. The silver lining was that I at least got to see just what I had escaped. Enormous jaws attached to a body that was still erupting from the ice. A pair of brightly glowing blow eyes. Fangs, scales, claws, wings.

A fucking ice dragon.

I drop several pallets of stone and dash away. I have no confidence in that actually stopping it. If the roar I hear is any indication, I was right. I glance back in time to see the tower explode as wings extend outwards and it launch itself into the air.

Damn. Looks like it's going to chase me. Really really regretting not having a windlance right now. Or an army. Or really, anything that can stop a full grown undead dragon!

It's dark enough that I notice the new glow behind me. I look back and see it's mouth open. Oh crap. I point my rocket straight down and dive under the jet of blue flames it breathes towards me.

The flames suck the heat out of the air. It seems odd it still look like fire. Diving isn't enough. I angle back towards the dragon. Closer in he can't turn fast enough to catch me with it's breath.

I'm actually faster than it too. At least as long as I'm using a rocket. Really glad I packed so many of them. The problem is the breath weapon. Because of that I keep close to the dragon.

It turns out easier than you would think. The dragon is massive. It's also clumsy. It lumbers through the air and turns slowly. I on the other hand can turn on a dime. As soon as I realize that I have my plan.

I start peppering the dragon with fire arrows. When it gets close I flit off to the side and resume shooting. It's a bit wasteful since I have to use a new rocket for each dodge. It pays off though.

Soon enough it falls out of the air. It smashed into the island I lured it over. No way was I going to lose any potential loot to the water. Ground bound it was even easier to target. At least until it actually ran away.

I paused in shock when the dragon retreated into the water. I waited but it didn't come up again. No new glacier. Nothing.

Son of a … MY LOOT!