"...It's not your fault Syeonyx... There was no way you could've known that was going to happen..."
"What do we do though? Seriously! There's one portal left and the only way to destroy it is lying in pieces in my hand!"
"I... I don't know... There's nothing more we can do... Erm... Let me think..."
UOPETA moved to the far side of the chamber, pacing up and down. I stood there in silence, whilst THEROS stood staring at his outstretched palm, hands shaking slightly... What could we do? The portal was indestructible when it was active; the energy provided to the obsidian frame fed the rift, and the energy of the rift fed the frame. It was a cycle that couldn't be broken without the stone! Without the stone, all active portals were now totally indestructible! Unless... Unless OROTHO had a way to maybe replicate the stone's power! Amie had wanted to study it, but COLUS wouldn't allow it; he was still undecided about her, and giving an unknown the only power we had was dangerous. Well, not that it mattered now... Maybe if we had let her study it. Maybe she could have replicated it, or created something similar! Without the stone, we didn't stand a chance against HoN Co. and I didn't know what options we had! Brute force would not work, but there was little else available... The only viable option I could think of was to... To go around each site as normal, only destroying the portals that were inactive. We didn't have much of a choice... We had to leave active portals alone! This more or less made our operation pointless... Destroying an active secondary portal could knock up to forty standard portals offline in a single shot. Taking out an inactive secondary portal would mean portals would merely re-route the iter waves to the next closest secondary portal... We had lost... Game over...
"Right... We can't do anything more here... The portal will remaining standing as we cannot intervene... I suggest we head back to base and inform COLUS and the others... Hopefully, with a larger think tank, we can come up with a solution... I have one, but it's unorthodox... And dangerous..."
UOPETA paused a moment, looked around the chamber, his eyes settling on the portal, and then he turned to face the exit...
"Come on... Let's get back..."
----
We arrived back at the base in good time, but I got the feeling that was mainly due to UOPETA wanting to quickly get back to base. I can't blame him; none of us were in the right mindset at all. THEROS had refused to put the shards of the stone away, and instead carried them in his closed palm the entire way back. When we got into the base, we all went straight to the lab, and THEROS placed the shards onto the table in front of COLUS, Amie, and OROTHO. At first, they seemed puzzled; they thought we had found something new, and OROTHO went to pick up a piece. Staring at it intently, it wasn't long before he realised what it was...
"Why is the stone in little pieces...?"
"UOPETA? Is this the Solus stone?"
There was silence for awhile, before I eventually stepped in and explained the story. I told them about how much progress we had made, until we came to the last chamber. I described the cages, the portal layouts and the incident with the exploding Creeper. I tried to keep it as brief as possible, but it seemed like it was taking an eternity to explain... After I eventually finished, COLUS sat in silence looking back at the shards... Yellow rays of light glinted off the sharpened surfaces, creating an ominously pretty light show on the table... The silence was deafening! No-one spoke. No-one moved. Silence. OROTHO set the shard back onto the table, and clasped his hands together, as if the full realisation of the situation had hit him...
"Was anyone hurt?"
"No... Luckily Syeonyx managed to dive out of the way in time, but the explosion only damaged the stone."
"Good. Let's be lucky that it wasn't any worse. You could have had casualties after an incident like that... Right... We'll need to discuss our options... Erm... Assemble everyone in the discussion room. I want everyone to be informed about this."
UOPETA went to gather THEXIS and AMPHIS from their respective rooms, whilst the rest of us walked back towards the discussion room in the centre. We had a lot to discuss... The main point? Whether there was any point in continuing...
We had discussed the situation as thoroughly as possible. With insight from everyone, we had established at least four possible options, with varying degrees of viability... We had discussed the possibility of replicating the Solus stone, and had aimed our questions at OROTHO and Amie, but they were incredibly doubtful. The stone was said to originate in the Nether, and on incredibly rare occasions, it would pass through a portal, and begin growing in an isolated location underground... One stone had been found ever in everyone's excavation, and HoN Co. didn't seem to possess one. Not that they would shout about it if they had!
"What about the shards? Are they still able to destroy portals?"
"Honestly? I wouldn't know... The power behind the stone is still beyond most of my own comprehension. I can just about understand the mechanics of it's use, but I wouldn't even be able to begin to understand how to replicate it! It could be classed as a biological organism, but technically it's not. It's a lot like a stalactite. Basically, caves containing limestone also contain calcite which is dissolved by water containing carbon dioxide. Once the water loses the carbon dioxide, the dissolved calcite hardens again, and this process continues to make a long peak forming downwards. I believe that the stone works in a similar way; through the intervention of a spreading medium, the stone can "grow" to other areas by being dissolved, re-solidified and so forth... I highly doubt we could regrow the shards to make a full stone, and I doubt even more that the shards will work effectively as a full stone!"
We were left with a dangerous decision. We had multiple directions we could take; some were dangerous, some were stupid... Some, I couldn't even determine why they were options! The four we were left with were as follows:
- Give up the entire campaign against HoN Co. and disband
- Continue with our campaign, only destroying the portals that were inactive
- Attempt to destroy the tower that sat above the chamber, hopefully burying the master portal and all primary portals with it!
The last option was near-suicidal! Not surprising that OROTHO had put it forward... He had stated that we could attempt to gain another stone... When this was mentioned, the entire room fell into silence... Was he actually suggesting what I think he was suggesting? To acquire another stone, one of two things needed to be done. Either we were to go on the biggest mining expedition ever, covering the largest possible surface area underground to find another near a portal... Or... To enter through a portal into the Nether... And retrieve another stone... This idea was ludicrous enough, but the fact that not even Amie or COLUS seemed to reject the idea made it worse! Were they actually considering it! Venture into the Nether and take another stone?!?! It couldn't be that easy. We couldn't just pop through, pick up some as though plucking an apple from a tree, and pass back through! We didn't even know what the Nether entailed! I had heard it was hell! Literally! It conjured up images of fire, vast lakes of lava, and unspeakably vile creatures with the one intent to destroy any intruders! Were they really suggesting we venture into a place like that? I put forward my rejection, along with the support of THEROS and UOPETA, but I don't know whether we got through to them...
"We have no idea what is in the Nether! We don't even know if it has an atmosphere!"
"Well... Technically we do... Study of Creeper anatomy has taught me that they possess a series of valves and and chambers which operate in similar ways to the human respiratory and circulatory system. They have their own version of lungs, and they don't seem to struggle when they pass into Minecraftia... It is possible they breath the same atmosphere as us..."
Trust OROTHO to come up with some hard evidence to knock us back! It was all well and good for him. Me, THEROS and UOPETA were the only ones that had to venture out! Everyone else remained in the base, safe and secure! UOPETA was thinking along the same track as me and voiced this concern, but COLUS had an answer. Which, frankly shocked me...
"Obviously if we go with that idea... We can't send in a small team... We all go! Safety in numbers. Yes we don't know what to expect, but if we all go in together, we stand a better chance than if only one of two of us go. Plus we could use the knowledge of Amie and OROTHO with us..."
OROTHO now didn't seem to like the idea, considering that he was being put forward as a candidate to enter! If we all entered, it would be easier, but I still couldn't believe this was even a considerable option!
"Okay, we're not going to get anywhere today... There is a lot to discuss, but I think it'll be easier if we all had clear heads... Everyone get some rest, and we'll discuss it in the morning... This is a very serious matter at hand, and we can't waste time arguing with clouded thoughts. We'll come back together tomorrow after everyone is fully rested. You three especially!"
We all left, and headed towards our own rooms. I was incredibly tired, but no matter how hard I tried, I doubt I would get much sleep... The Nether... I still can't believe we were considering it...
Syeonyx signing off
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