2 Bonus Chapterz in 1 day!! This is the bonus chapter reaching 600 Powerstones btw.
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Zeke admired his masterpiece, nodding in satisfaction. Now he could save everyone.
Everyone... everyone... everyone?
Zeke slapped his forehead.
Crap! Dante was still in the Nether! And there was that Eldar Harlequin too—even if she wasn't exactly human.
Zeke rushed toward the small Nether Portal in the camp; there was still time. He had to rescue Dante before the Blackstone Fortress crashed into the Nether.
–
Ah, what a beautiful day. Ghasts were singing, and Nether Warts were blooming.
Dante sat on a block of Netherrack with a fire pit before him. Hanging above the flames was a string of Nether Warts he had scavenged from a nearby Fortress. They smelled medicinal, but once roasted, they were decent enough to keep hunger at bay.
Sizzle, sizzle.
A burnt smell wafted up, and Dante frantically pulled the skewer off the fire.
"A bit scorched," Dante muttered. "Hey, Vergil, want a bite?"
Dante called out to the Piglin beside him.
The creature was wearing a custom gold blindfold, specially crafted by Dante. Rather than wearing a gold helmet himself to appease the beast, Dante found it easier to simply blind the Piglin with the metal it craved.
"Ah, I knew you were only interested in the gold." Dante sighed, took a few steps forward, and tapped on a block of obsidian.
"Hey lady, what about you? Oh, sorry, forgot—kind of hard to eat when you're imprisoned."
The Eldar Harlequin inside the cage muttered a few sentences in an incomprehensible language; Dante guessed she was probably cursing him.
Dante took a bite of the roasted Nether Wart. Before he could savor it, a void space suddenly appeared above his head.
The new Nether Portal was too massive. With insufficient space to generate naturally, it simply sheared through reality, displacing every block in its way.
Dante watched the purple light surge forth and-, "This doesn't look good. Vergil—run, run, run!"
Relying on instincts honed by countless brushes with death, Dante knew instantly that something was wrong.
He dragged the Piglin, Vergil, and sprinted toward the small portal leading back to the camp, running smack into Zeke, who was rushing in.
Zeke wasted no time shoving Dante and the Piglin back through the portal to safety.
"Watch the Piglin, don't let it hurt anyone in the camp!" Zeke shouted, rushing toward the Eldar trapped in the obsidian cage.
He mined away the obsidian, and the Eldar saw the light of day again.
She looked like a completely different person from the Harlequin she had been before; the figure before Zeke was now sallow and emaciated, resembling a beggar more than a warrior.
"Human, I think we can have a proper talk." The Eldar's tone had lost its initial arrogance.
"Afraid I don't have time right now." Zeke punched the Eldar in the head, intending to knock her out to carry her.
However, the Eldar's constitution was resilient; the punch failed to make her faint.
Zeke pulled Grug's Hammer from his backpack. I refuse to believe this won't knock you out.
"Human, no need to torture me anymore! The ice moon Klaisus... my kin are there. We can sit down and talk properly. Really, I am sincere!"
The Harlequin eyed the hammer in Zeke's hand with terror.
If an Eldar wanted to keep a secret, Zeke couldn't pry their mouth open. But seeing the hammer, the Harlequin genuinely wanted to propose cooperation.
Klaisus, a frozen planet in the Cadian system, indeed hosted an Eldar army—the Ynnari, the Army of the Death God. This army was composed of Eldar from various factions with a common goal: to awaken the God of the Dead, Ynnead, to destroy the Great Enemy, Slaanesh.
It was also this army that would assist Cawl in resurrecting Guilliman, which happened to be Zeke's next objective.
The Harlequin spilled everything about a Webway gate located there—one that could lead to Macragge on the other side of the galaxy.
Zeke looked at the hammer in his hand; hitting her again now would just be impolite.
"Behave yourself." Zeke applied a layer of insurance using a debuff potion, hoisted the Harlequin onto his shoulder, and ran non-stop toward the small Nether Portal.
Taking one last look at the landscape, Zeke disappeared into the purple swirl.
Shortly after Zeke left, a deafening explosion swept across the land, turning everything within millions of kilometers into nothingness. Blackstone dust choked the air.
The Blackstone Fortress had fallen.
Its collision with the Nether destroyed most of the Fortress's facilities, leaving only a skeletal wreckage.
At the edge of the crater, a group of Piglins wobbled into the Blackstone debris.
Oink, oink, snort. They exchanged grunts of approval, deciding this was a fine place to live.
The lead Piglin stumbled into a piece of wreckage first, and the others followed. Perhaps soon, the wreckage would bear a new name: the Blackstone Piglin Bastion.
–
Seeing the Blackstone Fortress disappear from the sky, the crowd first fell into silence, then erupted in cheers.
As the Fortress fell, some debris had peeled off and struck elsewhere. However, for Cadia, these minor scars would heal sooner or later.
What remained was cleanup. A group of soldiers geared up in front of the Nether Portal. They would travel to where the Fortress had crashed in the Nether to ensure all Chaos forces inside were thoroughly dead.
Everything was developing in a good direction. Cadia had broken free from the fires of war and gained a chance to breathe.
Moo!
A startled cry rang out, and Cow ran frantically in circles around the camp.
This wasn't a metaphor as his tail was literally ablaze.
Zeke laughed at Cow and threw a Fire Resistance Potion, which splashed over him.
Only up close did he see clearly: amidst the flames on the tail was a slender figure—a small Hell Drake, biting onto Cow's tail and refusing to let go.
The Hell Drake egg had hatched.
It seemed the little guy saw Cow first and mistook him for its parent, latching onto his tail and refusing to open its mouth.
Zeke tried to pull the small drake off, and though Cow's face twisted in pain, Zeke couldn't pry it loose.
"Since it likes you so much, you can take care of it."
Zeke leaned in to examine the hatchling. Unlike other drakes infected by Chaos, this small Hell Drake's aura was very clean. Zeke finally relaxed.
The creature was constantly wreathed in flames; its relationship with Cow was destined to be incredibly... warm.
Fortunately, there were plenty of Fire Resistance Potions. Zeke and Bela arranged a schedule for feeding and supervising the two. The drake wasn't even as long as Zeke's arm yet; it would take a long time to reach adulthood, so there was no rush.
Zeke looked at Cow's bitter expression and laughed heartlessly.
"Looks like Cow has a companion." Karmine approached, holding a flask. "The potion research has yielded its first results. This is a refined Slowness Potion."
Zeke took the dark grey liquid and tested a drop on himself.
It slowed him down by nearly 80%; it could almost be called a Paralysis Potion.
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Next Goal = 700 Powerstones, GIB ME POWERSTONES!!!