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  That being said, Stan knew that Leonidas couldn’t be far behind him. He was probably just trying to heal up from his underwater melee with Stan, and would be in hot pursuit in no time. Stan was in no condition to repel the Noctem archer now, and he had no place to rest up. If only, thought Stan as he gritted his teeth, somewhere, in this entire ocean, there was . . .

  Stan’s heart leaped for joy as finally, on the far horizon, he could see a dark mass of blocks expanding up from the surface of the ocean. Finally, Stan thought as he gave a sigh of relief.

  As Stan paddled closer and closer to the island, his enthusiasm grew less and less. This island had barely anything on it. There were no trees, no animals, and not much of anything else. It was just a small mound of dirt expanding out from the ocean. At the very least, though, there didn’t appear to be any Noctem forces anywhere near it.

  Stan finally reached the shoreline and dragged himself up onto the dirt-block shore. Stan collapsed face-down on the ground. He didn’t care that he was completely exposed and out in the open. He didn’t care about the potential monsters roaming this dark island. All Stan cared about was finally being back on dry land. At that moment, fatigued beyond comprehension from the ordeals of the last few days, all Stan wanted to do was sleep, and escape from his cares in the world.

  If Leonidas wants me, thought Stan as he drifted off into sleep, let him find me.

  “Stan?”

  Huh? Stan thought stupidly.

  “Stan? Stan, is that you?”

  That’s funny, thought Stan vaguely, through the cloud of exhaustion in his mind. I could have sworn I heard a voice. . . .

  “Stan! It is you! Oh, fantastic, I’ve been trying to contact you for ages . . . come on, wake up, noob!”

  “Wait, wha . . . ow!” Stan exclaimed, sitting up quick as a bolt and feeling a massive rush of blood from his head because of it. “Ugh . . . Sally, is that you?”

  “Yeah, it’s me,” Sally’s voice replied out of the ether, crackling and punctuated by static. “Listen Stan . . . I’ve got way too much to tell you . . . and not enough time . . . I need you to follow my instructions and fast, okay?”

  “Yeah, of course,” Stan replied, trying to force himself to wake up in the midst of his reconnection with Sally.

  “Okay,” Sally continued, her voice fluctuating greatly in volume as she spoke through the terrible audio. “Here’s what you need to do, Stan . . . . I need you to leave Elementia and join the server that I am about to invite you into.”

  “Did . . . did I just hear you right?” Stan asked, bewildered. “You’re asking me to leave Elementia?”

  “Just for . . . little while . . . ,” Sally replied, her voice now a consistent volume but barely audible over the outside interference. “You’ll . . . able to get back . . . into Elementia . . .” The static was getting worse and worse. “Trust . . . I’ll explain . . . when we . . . to meet . . . other in . . . my server . . . called . . . SalAcademy . . . See . . . soon . . .”

  And then, with a loud static crackle, Sally’s voice disappeared.

  Stan was stunned. He had been beginning to doubt that he would ever hear Sally’s voice again, and now, here she was asking him to leave Elementia and join her in a different server. Stan didn’t even know if it would be possible. He didn’t know much about Minecraft servers, but he did know that Elementia still had mods that King Kev had put in place. He didn’t know what these mods were—in fact, nobody really did—but Stan knew that they made going in and out of Elementia a risky business.

  There were two things that Stan was sure of, however. One of these things was that Sally knew much more about computers than he did. It took skill to bypass King Kev’s leftover defenses against hackers, as well as the efforts against her by whatever tech junkies the Noctem Alliance had on their side. The second thing was that he trusted Sally. She had never led him wrong before and, with her superior knowledge in the subject area, Stan was sure that he wouldn’t regret listening to her now.

  And so, Stan sat down cross-legged on the dirt beach of the island, took a deep breath, and focused hard on his desire to leave Elementia. For a moment, nothing happened, and Stan began to wonder if he was doing this right. Then all at once, a question appeared in his mind, written out as clearly as if it were actually visible.

  DISCONNECT FROM SERVER?

  And with a deep breath, and a sense of disbelief that he was actually doing this, Stan answered out loud.

  “Yes.”

  And with that, Stan2012 disappeared.

  From his place treading water in the ocean that surrounded the dirt-block island, Leonidas’s jaw was slack, his mouth hanging open. What did he just see?

  Leonidas was surprised that he had managed to catch up to Stan at all. For starters, Leonidas had given him a pretty good head start. After Leonidas had resurfaced from his underwater hideaway, he had immediately begun to swim toward the Elementia mainland, sure that Stan was headed in that direction.

  And now that he finally had Stan, what happened? Stan started talking to himself, pacing around, and then he had left Elementia? Leonidas started to panic . . . He knew that the Noctem Alliance was gaining more strength by the day, and Element City was losing just as much. How could Stan just abandon them like that? Leonidas was almost ready to give a shout of fury at Stan for abandoning his people in the midst of this crisis.

  Then Leonidas took a deep breath, and tried to clear his mind. If he himself was to return to Element City, he would have to try to keep as levelheaded as possible. And as Leonidas released his breath, he realized that Stan would never abandon Elementia. He had probably just gone to a different server for a while . . . or maybe he had homework to do . . . or maybe had had to pee or something. In any case, Leonidas assured himself that Stan would be fine, and that he’d probably be returning any moment.

  Suddenly, it struck Leonidas what an interesting position he was in. Stan had temporarily left Elementia . . . but he would return eventually. And when he returned, he would be in the exact same spot where he had left. And if he were to return right now, he would see Leonidas standing right in front of him.

  Leonidas sat down on the dirt-block mound and squinted his eye, trying to figure out what to do. On the one hand, he had been looking for the perfect time to tell Stan that he had abandoned the Noctem Alliance. Maybe here, on this island, with the two of them and nobody else, was the perfect place for him to do it. In any case, Leonidas didn’t imagine that a better time would be coming anytime soon.

  On the other hand, though . . . their last meeting had not gone particularly well. After that little fiasco, Leonidas had no idea how he was going to convince Stan that they were on the same side . . .

  Suddenly, Leonidas whipped his head up, the debate in his mind instantly vanishing. He could hear something. Ringing out of the dark sea, far beyond sight, was a song that he couldn’t quite make out. It sounded like a Minecraft song he had heard on the Internet a long time ago . . . and it was growing louder and louder. Leonidas ducked down behind a pile of dirt blocks. He peeked his head over the top, gazing far into the distance. Out in the sea, emerging from the render fog, Leonidas could see a small fleet of ships. He couldn’t make out the exact numbers, he guessed about six . . . but what he could make out quite clearly were the black tunics that each of the players was wearing.

  Leonidas glanced around in a panic, looking for a place to hide should soldiers happen to land on the island. His gaze locked on a small cave, not too far away, which led into the center of the dirt mound. With great grace and agility, Leonidas dive-rolled out from behind the dirt pile and into the mouth of the cavern. He peeked his head out the side, praying that the soldiers didn’t see him. Thankfully, they hadn’t seemed to notice. While they continued to head toward the island, there was no hint of recognition in their voices, just the continuing ring of the sea shanty.

  Leonidas sighed in relief. He could hide deep in the mine, and win through ambush if any of the troops should find him
. He was about to turn back and begin his trek down into the cavity of rock when an alarming realization slammed into Leonidas like a train.

  Leonidas stuck his head out of the cave again, and glanced at the spot where Stan had despawned. He glanced back out at the ships and realized, with a wrench to his gut, that Spyro was at the head of this fleet of six boats. They had stopped their singing. All of them were on course to land on the island, right at the spot where Stan had sat just a few minutes ago.

  Stan would return to Elementia. Leonidas didn’t know when, but he didn’t imagine Stan would be gone for long. And when Stan did despawn, he would find himself right in the middle of the squadron of Noctem troops, totally caught off guard and unprepared to defend himself.

  The Noctem troops had gotten out of their boats. The six of them had all manner of weapons drawn, from bows and arrows to diamond swords and axes. Spyro walked over directly to the spot where Stan had been and turned his back to Leonidas, facing his men.

  “Okay, men,” Spyro said gruffly. Leonidas was floored that he sounded so much older and more weary. “You know the drill. Search every nook, cranny, and crevice of this island. Your target is President Stan. Should you find anybody else, bring them to me.”

  “Yes, sir, General Spyro!” the other five soldiers yelled in unison.

  And with that the troop dashed around the island, starting to inspect every block for a sign of a hidden player. And right as Leonidas ducked his head into the mine to avoid detection, he realized that Spyro was not moving. In fact, he was standing in the same place where he had addressed his men, surveying their progress, and staring directly at where Stan was eventually bound to reappear.

  Leonidas ducked back into the cave in a panic. His heart was racing, and the fact that Spyro had somehow jumped up quite a few ranks from corporal to general was barely registering in his mind. All he knew was that these Noctem troops would comb every nook of the island, and eventually they would find him. But even more horrifying was that Stan could reappear in Elementia at any minute. And when he did, he would appear right in the midst of the enemy soldiers.

  As Leonidas heard footsteps approaching him, he hastily ducked further down into the cave, his mind racing as he tried to work out what to do next.

  Stan opened his eyes. He glanced around, bewildered. All he could see was an expanse of flat, green grass, stretching as far as the eye could see. There were no structures, no landscapes . . . no anything. Nothing but a never-ending expanse of grass.

  Stan was puzzled. He was sure that he had picked the right server . . . he had distinctly heard Sally say the words SalAcademy, and when he looked at the list of servers available to join, there it was. He was positive that this had to be the place. But then where was . . .

  Suddenly, Stan became aware of a presence behind him. He whipped around, his hand going to his axe, as he had forgotten that his inventory was now empty. Feeling defenseless, Stan glanced around wildly. Then, slowly, his gaze shifted upward.

  Levitating in front of him was a player, who slowly started to descend from the sky. As Stan watched in awe, more and more of her features came into view. She was wearing black pants and a black biker jacket, with a purple X across the front of it. Her jet-black hair was no longer in a braid but now hung down, half covering her face, and a streak of neon orange ran through it. However, as Stan looked into her totally unchanged pale face and single exposed green eye, he knew that, although her skin had changed, he was looking at the same person.

  “Welcome to the Academy, noob,” Sally smirked as her feet finally touched the ground.

  CHAPTER 6 THE SEEDS OF HATRED

  The Mechanist’s head snapped upward, and he grunted in confusion. Slowly, his sense returned as he remembered where he was. The council room was deserted aside from himself, and all was silent except for the omnipresent sounds of the bombardment on the city walls. The Mechanist rubbed his eyes. He realized that he had been sleeping for a while, though he was unsure of exactly how long.

  He looked around the empty room. He was puzzled. What was he doing in here? Why did he remember so little about the time before he had passed out? Why had he passed out in the first . . . ?

  And then, in a rush, the Mechanist remembered.

  He had been sitting in the council room, poring over battle strategies submitted for his approval, when Bill had burst into the room. He had been frantic and had tears in his eyes. The Mechanist had demanded to know what was wrong. And Bill managed to get out between his choked-back sobs that the Noctem Alliance had sent them a message, and their military had managed to confirm it—that DZ had been killed in an accident at the prison.

  The news had slammed into the Mechanist like a truck. He had demanded that Bill leave him be, that he had to be alone. And then . . . what? The Mechanist could barely remember what had happened after that. He vaguely remembered a feeling of overwhelming grief, but besides that . . .

  A glint of light from the floor caught the Mechanist’s eye. He ducked down under the table and examined the empty glass potion bottle lying on the floor. Intrigued, the Mechanist examined the bottle more closely. There, sitting at the bottom of the container, sat a single remaining drop of the blue-gray potion.

  The Mechanist gave a sigh of understanding. Now that he thought about it, he did have a faint recollection of when he had been sobbing over the death of his fellow councilman. He had only experienced grief like that once before in his life, when King Kev had banished him into the town of Blackstone as a laborer. To this day, the Mechanist still couldn’t hear the words that the King had spoken to him without the psychological scars of that day floating to the surface.

  So when the news of DZ’s demise had come to light, the Mechanist had tried to remember what he had done to overcome the trauma of his banishment. The answer was quite simple: he had turned to SloPo. And it looked like in the death of one of his closest friends, the Mechanist had turned to SloPo yet again . . . though for the life of him he couldn’t remember where he had gotten it.

  The Mechanist shook his head in disgust. He remembered what Gobbleguy used to tell him back in Blackstone, about how he was when he was on SloPo. He never had any recollections of how he acted, but he knew that he definitely wasn’t in the mindset to lead a nation when he drank it.

  The Mechanist picked up the glass bottle and shoved it firmly into the deepest depths of his inventory. With a knitted brow, he vowed to never drink the potion again, regardless of how stressed out he may be, as he turned his eyes back down to his work.

  Jayden and G were both trying very hard to keep their breathing steady, to keep their bodies from shaking in anticipation. They were standing in the middle of a group of twenty upper-level players, standing in a five-by-four player line, in the center of the Capitol rotunda in the heart of Nocturia.

  Both players were relieved that they had managed to merge into the Noctem forces so easily without arousing suspicion. They had spent the last day and a half marching through the forest, jungle, and desert until they reached the tundra where the Noctem capital of Nocturia was situated (they had overheard the higher-ups saying that the fast-travel highway through the Nether was still under construction).

  As they marched across the countryside, Jayden and G had been horrified to see the evidence of Noctem occupation of the region. Scattered across all the biomes were Noctem bases constructed out of cobblestone, with black figures swarming around them. Once, they had walked by a community of players living at the edge of the jungle, and they had seen the players living there forced to go underground with no armor by Noctem soldiers armed with diamond weapons. G had found it difficult to keep himself from breaking free of the group and liberating the village.

  Finally, after the endless trek through the tundra, they had arrived at Nocturia. The two councilmen found the city to be beyond impressive. In the middle of the endless expanse of snow-white hills and frigid blizzard, the Capitol Building of Nocturia stuck out like an ornate, gothic, and eerie thumb. Beyo
nd the ornate and intimidating design of the stone-brick structure, what most stuck out about the outside design were the pillars of light. These thin rays of iridescence flashed out of the top of Nocturia and protruded high into the dark sky of the eternal snowstorm. G had later informed Jayden that these were Beacons, blocks that omitted light rays and were constructed of very rare materials added into the game a few updates back.

  Surrounding the Capitol Building were dozens of other structures. These small stone-brick enclosures with gravel paths running between them were hardly impressive, but the two councilmen knew that within each of those small buildings were more Noctem troops, more soldiers ready to add to the bombardment of the Element City walls.

  It had been late last night when G and Jayden had finally made their way into the Capitol Building with the other troops, amazed that they had managed to make it all the way to Nocturia undetected. As they had entered the building, Jayden and G had split from the group as soon as possible, and had, without much searching, found what they were looking for: a wooden sign on the stone-brick wall that read TRAINING AREA with an arrow pointing in their direction.

  After following more signs, the duo had reached the training room, and, as their military intelligence had led them to believe, a new group of new recruits to the Noctem Alliance were waiting in the room. The two had waited outside the room until a figure appeared to escort the trainees to their quarters, and when the rabble of new recruits had passed, Jayden and G subtly shed their black armor and mixed into the crowd.

  In the large stone-brick quarters lined with two dozen beds, the group of twenty recruits had been loud and raucous, in the process of meeting their new friends. Jayden and G had taken part, trying to look as casual as possible. When the redstone lamps lighting the room finally turned off, signaling curfew, Jayden and G had taken adjacent beds and drifted off to sleep, still not believing how smoothly their plan had run so far.