After eating a hearty meal - in silence for a change - we removed the torches placed around the walls, stamped the cinders out and headed for the mouth of the cave. We still had a decent distance to go, from what I could remember from the map, which we now no longer had, but we should reach the outpost by nightfall. Hopefully before nightfall. We were a mile or so from the ice crossing, which we had classified as the halfway point, but we were determined to go faster today. It wasn't raining or snowing, or any other adverse weather, so we wouldn't be slowed down by the elements. We just had to remain on track and not become distracted by anything along the way. That wasn't going to be too difficult now that we no longer had the map with the portal locations with us. UOPETA's had this idea that to wake us up properly, we should go for an early morning jog... Me and THEROS obviously don't appreciate this, but we had to agree it would wake us up, and it would get us to the outpost faster.
"If we maintain a gentle jog continuously until we reach the crossing, we can make good time. If I can keep it up, I'm pretty sure that you two can as well!"
We set off towards the ice crossing to the East, at the gentle jog that UOPETA suggested. After about five minutes, I had to admit that it was actually working! I felt fresher than I had a few minutes before, and we were making great progress! It wasn't long before we had actually reached the ice crossing; we slowed down to a walk, knowing that we couldn't maintain a jog on such a slippery surface. It would be a danger to our health if we were to slip, and even worse, it could prove fatal if we fell through. Fortunately, we hadn't noticed the drop in temperature after entering into the snowy area. It seemed that UOPETA's idea of making us jog had worked out to our advantage in more ways than initially intended.
"See! You're warmer now, and we're here faster than if we had walked it! Right then. Same procedure as before: staggered line, walking flat footed, and remaining clear of any large pools of water!"
UOPETA set off first, carefully edging himself along the treacherously slippy surface. THEROS followed off to the left of UOPETA's path about a minute later, and I followed THEROS off to the right of UOPETA about a minute after him. It took us slightly longer to cross over this time; once or twice we all nearly fell over onto the ice, but we all recovered, thankfully. After reaching the other side, we began another gentle job, although this time we headed down to the South. We were nearly there, but we slowed down to a walk again, as we began to talk over the meeting with SERVERE once more. Talking was much harder whilst jogging, and we were already ahead of schedule.
"What did SERVERE mean by the 'Ascension'...?"
"I assume that's the plan to open the master portal and merge the two dimensions together..."
"That doesn't sound like an ascension to me. Ascension is the rising of something or someone to a higher level, place or state..."
"Maybe it means the ascension of Minecraftia into a higher state of existence... Maybe Minecraftia will benefit from this merging of the dimensions... If that's the case, I think HoN Co. have drastically misunderstood the purpose of the master portal."
"Well SERVERE spoke of the Ascension as though he had first-hand knowledge of it. Do you reckon he's mentioned it in any of his books?"
"Maybe that's why he wants us to decode the books with the yellow covers. Maybe they contain information about the Ascension!"
"It's entirely possible. I'm just wondering how many more layers of complexity are being added to this. We started off understanding that HoN Co. were using the portals for a bad purpose, and we had to stop that. Now there's mention of an Ascension which seems to have be given almost apocalyptic status, and the merging of dimensions!"
We continued like this well into the late afternoon, still heading South towards the outpost, knowing that we should easily reach it before nightfall.
It was quite dark by the time we reached the hill close to the house. Even from this distance, we could tell that AMPHIS had disobeyed the single rule that UOPETA had laid out; during the night, all lights were to be extinguished and work should continue in the basement. We headed towards the outer wall of the outpost, UOPETA looking rather annoyed, presumably about AMPHIS. As we came through the door, AMPHIS seemed surprised to see us, but his shock seemed to subside rather quickly, and was replaced with excitement!
"You're back already? But wait, I have something to tell you! I have seen SERVERE once more, and not only this, but he spoke to me! He stood before me and..."
"Join the club!"
"What...? I... I don't understand?"
"We've seen SERVERE as well..."
"You've seen SERVERE?"
"Seen him? We've spoken to SERVERE, and we've even handed over the map and glowing stone to him! It seems rather a lot of things have happened recently involving SERVERE."
"He told me all about the incident with HoN Co.!"
"He's done the same with us. We know everything about the day he disappeared... But I'm still wondering whether it's worth trusting him. He's been away too long."
"He's a fellow brother of the Lone 7! How can you not trust him?!?"
"He's wearing the armour of the Elite. It might not be enough for you, but it's enough for me to suspect he has other motives..."
Syeonyx signing off
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